The Project Gutenberg EBook of Robin, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Title: Robin

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Release Date: July 30, 2006 [EBook #18945]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ROBIN

BY
FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

AUTHOR OF
"THE SHUTTLE"
"THE SECRET GARDEN"
"THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF COOMBE"
ETC.

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

COPYRIGHT, 1921, 1922, BY
THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

THE YEARS BEFORE

Outline Arranged by Hamilton Williamson

from

_THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF COOMBE_

In the years when Victorian standards and ideals began to dance an
increasingly rapid jig before amazed lookers-on, who presently found
themselves dancing as madly as the rest--in these years, there lived in
Mayfair, in a slice of a house, Robert Gareth-Lawless and his lovely
young wife. So light and airy was she to earthly vision and so
diaphanous the texture of her mentality that she was known as "Feather."

The slice of a house between two comparatively stately mansions in the
"right street" was a rash venture of the honeymoon.

Robert--well born, irresponsible, without resources--evolved a carefully
detailed method of living upon nothing whatever, of keeping out of the
way of duns, and telling lies with aptness and outward gaiety. But a
year of giving smart little dinners and going to smart big dinners ended
in a condition somewhat akin to the feat of balancing oneself on the
edge of a sword.

Then Robin was born. She was an intruder and a calamity, of course. That
a Feather should become a parent gave rise to much wit of light weight
when Robin was exhibited in the form of a bundle of lace.

It was the Head of the House of Coombe who asked:

"What will you do wi