HELENA BRETT'S CAREER

BY

DESMOND COKE

AUTHOR OF THE BOOKS ON THE PAGE OPPOSITE

[Transcriber's note: this list has been moved to the end of this etext]

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
3, WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
1913

TO

ARTHUR WAUGH,

CRITIC, PUBLISHER, AND FRIEND,
WHO STARTED ME AS NOVELIST
AND HAS NEVER FAILED SINCE
WITH ENCOURAGEMENT,
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
IN GRATITUDE.

PREFATORY POSTSCRIPT

In these thin-skinned days when the words libel and traitor drift on every breeze, it may be "wise" (I am told at the last), to make it plain that my Author, Publisher, and Artist do not represent real people! So be it, then: the men, as also women, in this unromantic comedy of married life are all imagined; but in declaring them not to be individuals, I would not be thought to admit that they are non-existent ... or universal. Such men have been and will be—self-centred authors, unscrupulous publishers, vulgar-minded artists—nor does a paragon make the best food for fiction: but there are also Others. Logic still permits one to avoid Libel without confessing Treachery, and I am little likely to "attack" my own profession or two others from which I draw some of my nearest friends. We are told that there are black sheep in every fold; but it is still possible that a few among the others may be white. It pleases some of us to think so.

DESMOND COKE

CONTENTS

PART I

HOW IT HAPPENED

PART II

HUBERT BRETT'S WIFE

PART III

HELENA BRETT'S CAREER