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Title: The Lunatic at Large

Author: J. Storer Clouston

Release Date: January 30, 2007 [Ebook #20485]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LUNATIC AT LARGE***

THE
LUNATIC AT LARGE

_A NOVEL_

BY
J. STORER CLOUSTON

AUTHORIZED EDITION

BRENTANO'S
NEW YORK
1915

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
PART III.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
PART IV.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
ERRATA.

THE LUNATIC AT LARGE.

INTRODUCTORY.

Into the history of Mr Francis Beveridge, as supplied by the obliging
candour of the Baron von Blitzenberg and the notes of Dr Escott, Dr
Twiddel and his friend Robert Welsh make a kind of explanatory entry. They
most effectually set the ball a-rolling, and so the story starts in a
small room looking out on a very uninteresting London street.

It was about three o'clock on a November afternoon, that season of fogs
and rains and mud, when towns-people long for fresh air and hillsides, and
country-folk think wistfully of the warmth and lights of a city, when
nobody is satisfied, and everybody has a cold. Outside the window of the
room there were a few feet of earth adorned with a low bush or two, a line
of railings, a stone-paved street, and on the other side a long row of
uniform yellow brick houses. The apartment itself was a modest chamber,
containing a minimum of rented furniture and a flickering gas-stove. By a
small