And so in the end Diana had her little jest, and gave Johannesburg its shock and its nine days' wonder, and was certainly the most surprising bride of the year; though, of course, afterwards most people said they were not surprised at all, and had expected it all along.
Before the wedding a sufficiently characteristic letter found its way to a certain mission station in Rhodesia to delight the hearts of its contented occupants. After duly relating all that had transpired and how the problem had been solved, it added: "And now the only difficulty seems to be how to relieve Meryl of her superfluous fortune, in order that she and The Bear may live upon love and air, and how to save me from appearing in the guise of a heroine!..."
To her old friend Stanley she wrote gaily of the perfectly splendid surprise she had succeeded in administering to about half the English-speaking population of South Africa.
And Stanley wrote back, with many regretful qualms tugging at his heart: "The astonishment of South Africa is a mere detail. When the news reached Zimbabwe, bones that have lain buried for three thousand years rattled in their grave-clothes, and antiquities of the ages crumbled to dust. In the morning, over our coffee, Moore and I ask of the four winds and of the liquid butter and of the unyielding bread, 'Which did he actually marry in the end, and what became of whom?'" ...
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
Hutchinson's 1/- Net Novels.
Bound in Cloth, with pictorial wrappers.| THE CAP OF YOUTH | Madame Albanesi |
| THE SUNLIT HILLS | Madame Albanesi |
| ODDSFISH | Robert Hugh Benson |
| INITIATION | Robert Hugh Benson |
| LONELINESS | Robert Hugh Benson |
| AN AVERAGE MAN | Robert Hugh Benson |
| COME RACK! COME ROPE! | Robert Hugh Benson |
| THE COWARD | Robert Hugh Benson |
| THE RETURN OF RICHARD CARR | Winifred Boggs |
| THE WOOD END | J. E. Buckrose |
| MEAVE | Dorothea Conyers |
| THE STRAYINGS OF SANDY | Dorothea Conyers |
| THE SCRATCH PACK | Dorothea Conyers |
| TWO IMPOSTORS AND TINKER | Dorothea Conyers |
| A RASH EXPERIMENT | Mrs. B. M. Croker |
| WHAT SHE OVERHEARD | Mrs. B. M. Croker |
| IN OLD MADRAS | Mrs. B. M. Croker |
| THE SERPENT'S TOOTH | Mrs. B. M. Croker |
| SANDY'S LOVE AFFAIR | S. R. Crockett |
| TWILIGHT | Frank Danby |
| LILAMANI | Maud Diver |
| A DOUBLE THREAD | Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler |
| WE OF THE NEVER NEVER | Æneas Gunn |
| BIRD'S FOUNTAIN | Baroness von Hutten |
| SHARROW | Baroness von Hutten |
| MARIA | Baroness von Hutten |
| THE LORDSHIP OF LOVE | Baroness von Hutten |
| THE GREEN PATCH | Baroness von Hutten |
| PAUL KELVER | Jerome K. Jerome |
| "GOOD OLD ANNA" | Mrs. Belloc Lowndes |
| THE DEVIL'S GARDEN | W. B. Maxwell |
| A BRIDE OF THE PLAINS | Baroness Orczy |
| PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT | Baroness Orczy |
| THE ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL | Baroness Orczy |
| A TRUE WOMAN | Baroness Orczy |
| MEADOWSWEET | Baroness Orczy |
| THE MONEY MASTER | Sir Gilbert Parker |
MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY has rapidly come to the front as one of our most successful novelists. Her stories excel in wit, humour, observation and characterisation. The complete and uniform edition of her novels, as under, will be published at short intervals, at the popular price of 1/-.
By
Mabel Barnes-GrundyEach bound in cloth, with most attractive picture wrapper in colours, 1/- net.
An Undressed Heroine
Marguerite's Wonderful Year
Hilary on Her Own
Two in a Tent—and Jane
The Third Miss Wenderby
Patricia Plays a Part
Candytuft—I mean Veronica
The Vacillations of Hazel
Like Gertrude Page's Shilling Novels, Mabel Barnes-Grundy's Shilling Novels for 1917 will be the outstanding success of the year.