The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Beautiful Alien, by Julia Magruder

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: A Beautiful Alien

Author: Julia Magruder

Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25989]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BEAUTIFUL ALIEN ***

Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

A BEAUTIFUL
ALIEN

BY

JULIA MAGRUDER

BOSTON
Richard G. Badger & Co.
(Incorporated)
1901

COPYRIGHT 1899 BY
RICHARD G. BADGER & CO.

_All Rights Reserved_

_PRINTED BY LAKEVIEW PRESS
SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASS., FOR
RICHARD G BADGER & COMPANY (INC)
BOSTON_

[Illustration]

A Beautiful Alien

I.

On the deck of an ocean steamer, homeward bound from Europe, a man and
girl were walking to and fro. Their long march of monotonous regularity
had lasted perhaps an hour, and they had become objects of special
attention to the people scattered about.

A man, who was taking his afternoon exercise alone, and who had
accidentally fallen into line directly behind this couple, kept that
position purposely, turning as they turned, and, without seeming to do
so, observing them narrowly, for the reason that the woman was
uncommonly beautiful.

This man--Albert Noel by name--was an artist by instinct and habit,
though a lawyer by profession. He painted pictures for love and
practised law for money, or conventionality, or to please his mother
and sisters, or from some reason which, however indefinite, had been
strong enough to predominate over the longing he had always had to go
to Paris, live in the Latin Quarter, and be simply and honestly what
his taste dictated. Few people, perhaps, suspected his Bohemian
proclivities; for he lived an extremely conventional life, was the idol
of his mother and sisters, and, being well born, well-off, and
sufficiently good-looking, was regarded as an excellent match
matrimonially. In spite of this fact he had never been known to be
seriously in love; though, being a quiet man, this experience might
have befalle