The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Woman Who Did, by Grant Allen

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Title: The Woman Who Did

Author: Grant Allen

Posting Date: July 26, 2009 [EBook #4396]
Release Date: August, 2003
First Posted: January 22, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN WHO DID ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo and Don Lainson. HTML version
by Al Haines.

THE WOMAN WHO DID

by

Grant Allen

1895

TO MY DEAR WIFE

TO WHOM I HAVE DEDICATED MY TWENTY HAPPIEST YEARS

I DEDICATE ALSO

THIS BRIEF MEMORIAL OF A LESS FORTUNATE LOVE

WRITTEN AT PERUGIA

SPRING 1893

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE

WHOLLY AND SOLELY TO SATISFY

MY OWN TASTE

AND MY OWN CONSCIENCE

PREFACE

"But surely no woman would ever dare to do so," said my friend.

"I knew a woman who did," said I; "and this is her story."

I.

Mrs. Dewsbury's lawn was held by those who knew it the loveliest in
Surrey. The smooth and springy sward that stretched in front of
the house was all composed of a tiny yellow clover. It gave
beneath the foot like the pile on velvet. One's gaze looked forth
from it upon the endless middle distances of the oak-clad Weald,
with the uncertain blue line of the South Downs in the background.
Ridge behind ridge, the long, low hills of paludina limestone stood
out in successive tiers, each thrown up against its neighbor by the
misty haze that broods eternally over the wooded valley; till,
roaming across them all, the eye rested at last on the rearing
scarp of Chanctonbury Ring, faintly pencilled on the furthest skyline.
Shadowy phantoms of dim heights framed the verge to east and
west. Alan Merrick drank it in with profound satisfaction. After
those sharp and clear-cut Italian outlines, hard as lapis lazuli,
the mysterious vagueness, the pregnant suggestiveness, of our
English scenery strikes the imagination; and Alan was fresh home
from an early summer tour among the Peruginesque solidities of the
Umbrian Apennines. "How beautiful it all is, after all," he said,
turning to his entertainer. "In Italy 'tis the background the
painter dwells upon