The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Encore, by Margaret Deland

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Title: An Encore

Author: Margaret Deland

Release Date: July 1, 2009 [EBook #29284]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ENCORE ***

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[Illustration: [See page 4

WHEN ALFRED PRICE FELL IN LOVE WITH MISS LETTY MORRIS]

An Encore

BY

MARGARET DELAND

AUTHOR OF

"THE AWAKENING OF HELENA RICHIE"
"DR. LAVENDER'S PEOPLE"
"OLD CHESTER TALES"
ETC. ETC.

ILLUSTRATED BY
ALICE BARBER STEPHENS

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
MCMVII

Copyright, 1904, 1907, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

_All rights reserved._
Published October, 1907.

Illustrations

"WHEN ALFRED PRICE FELL IN LOVE WITH
MISS LETTY MORRIS" _Frontispiece_

"THE CAPTAIN AND CYRUS WERE AFRAID
OF GUSSIE" _Facing p_ 18

"THERE WAS A LITTLE SILENCE, AND THEN
DR. LAVENDER BEGAN" " 76

An Encore

According to Old Chester, to be romantic was just one shade less
reprehensible than to put on airs. Captain Alfred Price, in all his
seventy years, had never been guilty of putting on airs, but certainly
he had something to answer for in the way of romance.

However, in the days when we children used to see him pounding up the
street from the post-office, reading, as he walked, a newspaper held at
arm's-length in front of him, he was far enough from romance. He was
seventy years old, he weighed over two hundred pounds, his big head was
covered with a shock of grizzled red hair; his pleasures consisted in
polishing his old sextant and playing on a small mouth-harmonicon. As to
his vices, it was no secret that he kept a fat black bottle in the
chimney-closet in his own room, and occasionally he swore strange oaths
about his grandmother's nightcap. "He used to blaspheme," his
daughter-in-law said; "but I said, 'Not in m