Colette 177

XX. The Escaped Nun 190

XXI. An Anxious Night 199

XXII. The End of a Melodrama 208

XXIII. The First Blow 218

XXIV. Anne Makes History 227

XXV. The Cathedral 236

XXVI. The Fall of Livingstone 248

THE TEST OF DISAPPEARANCE.

XXVII. A Problem of Disappearance 258

XXVIII. A First Test 266

XXIX. The Nerve of Anne 274

XXX. Under the Eyes of Hate 283

XXXI. The Heart of Honora 296

XXXII. The Pauline Privilege 304

XXXIII. Love is Blind 312

XXXIV. A Harpy at the Feast 320

XXXV. Sonia Consults Livingstone 327

XXXVI. Arthur's Appeal 335

XXXVII. The End of Mischief 344

XXXVIII. A Tale Well Told 351

XXXIX. Three Scenes 360

DISAPPEARANCE.

THE ART OF DISAPPEARING.

CHAPTER I.

THE HOLY OILS.

Horace Endicott once believed that life began for him the day he married
Sonia Westfield. The ten months spent with the young wife were of a hue
so roseate as to render discussion of the point foolish. His youth had
been a happy one, of the roystering, innocent kind: noisy with yachting,
baseball, and a moderate quantity of college beer, but clean, as if his
mother had supervised it; yet he had never really lived in his
twenty-five years, until the blessed experience of a long honeymoon and
a little housekeeping with Sonia had woven into his life the light of
sun and moon and stars together. However, as he admitted long
afterwards, his mistake was as terrible as convincing. Life began for
him that day he sat in the railway carriage across the aisle from
distinguished Monsignor O'Donnell, prelate of the Pope's household,
doctor in theology, and vicar-general of the New York diocese. The train
being on its way to Boston, and the journey dull, Horace whiled away a
slow hour watching the Monsignor, and wondering what motives govern the
activity of the priests of Rome. The priest was a handsome man of fifty,
dark-haired, of an ascetic pallor, but undoubtedly practical, as his
quick and business-like movements testified. His dark eyes were of fine
colo