and stimulated by the accepted
challenge of my friend, to whom I promised a completed book in twelve
months, I found time during a very busy year to pencil the chapters that
follow. Most of the book was written while waiting at stations, or on the
cars, and in hotels, using the spare moments of an eight-months' lecture
season, and the four months at home occupied by business.

I am aware that some critics decry a novel written with a purpose. Permit
me therefore in advance to admit that this book has a double purpose: To
test the truth of Howells's words as applied to myself; and to describe a
journey, both at home and abroad, which may possibly be enjoyed by the
reader, the inconveniences of travel being lessened by incidentally
tracing a love story to a strange but perhaps satisfactory conclusion;
the whole leading to the evolution of a successful experiment, which in
fragments is being tried in various parts of the civilized world.

CONTENTS

Chapter I
The Harrises in New York

Chapter II
Mr. Hugh Searles of London Arrives

Chapter III
A Bad Send-off

Chapter IV
Aboard the S.S. Majestic

Chapter V
Discomfitures at Sea

Chapter VI
Half Awake, Half Asleep

Chapter VII
Life at Sea a Kaleidoscope

Chapter VIII
Colonel Harris Returns to Harrisville

Chapter IX
Capital and Labor in Conference

Chapter X
Knowledge is Power

Chapter XI
In Touch with Nature

Chapter XII
The Strike at Harrisville

Chapter XIII
Anarchy and Results

Chapter XIV
Colonel Harris Follows his Family Abroad

Chapter XV
Safe Passage, and a Happy Reunion

Chapter XVI
A Search for Ideas

Chapter XVII
The Harrises Visit Paris

Chapter XVIII
In Belgium and Holland

Chapter XIX
Paris, and the Wedding

Chapter XX
Aboard the Yacht "Hallena"

Chapter XXI
Two Unanswered Letters

Chapter XXII
Colonel Harris's Big Blue Envelope

Chapter XXIII
Gold Marries Gold

Chapter XXIV
The Magic Band of Beaten Gold

Chapter XXV
Workings of the Harris-Ingram Experiment

Chapter XXVI
Unexpected Meetings

Chapter XXVII
The Crisis

THE HARRIS-INGRAM EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER I

THE HARRISES IN NEW YORK

It was five o'clock in the afternoon, when a bright little messenger boy
in blue touched the electric button of Room No. ---- in Carnegie Studio,
New York City. At once the door flew open and a handsome young artist
received a Western Union telegram, and quickly signed his name, "Alfonso
H. Ha