The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Phantom Lover, by Ruby M. Ayres

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Title: The Phantom Lover

Author: Ruby M. Ayres

Release Date: October 19, 2009 [EBook #30286]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHANTOM LOVER ***

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THE PHANTOM LOVER

BY

RUBY M. AYRES

AUTHOR OF A BACHELOR HUSBAND, THE SCAR, ETC.

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

Copyright, 1921, BY W. J. WATT & COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATED

TO MY FRIEND

Janet Moore

THE REAL 'JUNE MASON'

IN THIS STORY

THE PHANTOM LOVER

CHAPTER I

Somewhere out in the night a woman was crying, crying desolately. The
sad, rather monotonous sound broke the silence of the street and
floated through the open window of a room where Micky Mellowes was
wondering how the deuce he should get through the long evening lying
before him.

Micky was in a bad temper. It was not often that he was in a bad
temper, but he had begun the day by waking with a headache, which was
still with him, and which accounted for the wide open window and the
breath of icy air which was filling the room and fluttering the
curtains; and half an hour ago some people with whom he had been going
to dine had rung up and told him that the party was off owing to the
sudden death of a relative, thereby leaving the evening long and empty
on his hands.

It was New Year's Eve, too, which made matters a thundering sight
worse.

He wondered if Marie Deland was feeling as sick about it as he was.
Micky was in the middle of an interesting flirtation with Marie, which
bade fair to develop into something deeper with careful engineering on
the part of her family, for Micky was a catch, and though so far he
had proved himself singularly adroit in avoiding mothers with
marriageable daughters, the Delands were beginning to pat each other
on the back and to look pleased.

When the sound of crying reached him he had been feeling so thoroughly
fed-up with life that it had