The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pagan Madonna, by Harold MacGrath

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Title: The Pagan Madonna

Author: Harold MacGrath

Illustrator: W. H. D. Koerner

Release Date: November 27, 2008 [EBook #27339]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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BOOKS BY HAROLD MACGRATH

ADVENTURES OF KATHLYN
ARMS AND THE WOMAN
BEST MAN
CARPET FROM BAGDAD
DEUCES WILD
ENCHANTED HAT
GOOSE GIRL
HALF A ROGUE
HEARTS AND MASKS
LUCK OF THE IRISH: A ROMANCE
LURE OF THE MASK
MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY
PARROT & CO.
PIDGIN ISLAND
PLACE OF HONEYMOONS
PRINCESS ELOPES
PUPPET CROWN
SPLENDID HAZARD
THE DRUMS OF JEOPARDY
THE GIRL IN HIS HOUSE
THE GREY CLOAK
THE MAN ON THE BOX
THE MAN WITH THREE NAMES
THE PAGAN MADONNA
THE PRIVATE WIRE TO WASHINGTON
THE YELLOW TYPHOON
VOICE OF THE FOG

[Illustration: "'Thank you for coming up,' said Cunningham. 'It makes me
feel that you trust me.'"]

THE
PAGAN MADONNA

BY
HAROLD MacGRATH

FRONTISPIECE
BY
W. H. D. KOERNER

GARDEN CITY, N. Y., AND TORONTO
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1921

COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

THE PAGAN MADONNA

CHAPTER I

Humdrum isn't where you live; it's what you are. Perhaps you are one of
those whose lives are bound by neighbourly interests. Imaginatively, you
never seek what lies under a gorgeous sunset; you are never stirred by any
longing to investigate the ends of rainbows. You are more concerned by
what your neighbour does every day than by what he might do if he were
suddenly spun, whirled, jolted out of his poky orbit. The blank door of an
empty house never intrigues you; you enter blind alleys without thrilling
in the least; you hear a cry in the night and impute it to some marauding
tom. Lord, what a life!

And yet every move you make is governed by Chance--the Blind Madonna of
the Pagan, as that great adventur