The Project Gutenberg eBook, Coquette, by Frank Swinnerton

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Title: Coquette

Author: Frank Swinnerton

Release Date: January 18, 2010 [eBook #31005]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COQUETTE***

E-text prepared by Annie McGuire

COQUETTE

* * * * *

THE NOVELS OF
FRANK SWINNERTON

THE HAPPY FAMILY
ON THE STAIRCASE
THE CHASTE WIFE
SHOPS AND HOUSES
NOCTURNE
SEPTEMBER
COQUETTE

COQUETTE

FRANK SWINNERTON

* * * * *

BY FRANK SWINNERTON

COQUETTE
SEPTEMBER
SHOPS AND HOUSES
NOCTURNE
THE CHASTE WIFE
ON THE STAIRCASE
THE HAPPY FAMILY
THE CASEMENT
THE YOUNG IDEA
THE MERRY HEART
GEORGE GISSING
_A Critical Study_
R. L. STEVENSON
_A Critical Study_

* * * * *

COQUETTE

by

FRANK SWINNERTON

Author of "September," "Shops and
Houses," "Nocturne," Etc.

New York
George H. Doran Company

Copyright, 1921,
by George H. Doran Company

CONTENTS

PAGE

BOOK ONE

TOBY 9

BOOK TWO

GAGA 89

BOOK THREE

CONSEQUENCES 209

BOOK ONE: TOBY

i

It was Saturday night--a winter night in which the wind hummed through
every draughty crevice between the windows and under the doors and down
the chimneys. Outside, in the Hornsey Road, horse-omnibuses rattled by
and the shops that were still open at eleven o'clock glistened with
light. Up the road, at the butcher's just below the Plough public-house,
a small crowd lingered, turning over scraps of meat, while the butcher
himself, chanting "Lovely, lovely, lovely!" in a kind of ecstasy,
plunged again into a fresh piece of meat the attractive legend, "Oh,
mother, look! Three ha'pence a pound!" Just over the way, at the Supply
Stores, they had begun to roll down the heavy shu