A ROMANCE OF TORONTO.

(FOUNDED ON FACT.)

A NOVEL.

BY MRS. ANNIE G. SAVIGNY

Author of "An Allegory on Gossip," "A Heart-Song of To-day," etc.

TORONTO:
WILLIAM BRIGGS, 78 & 80 KING STREET EAST.

1888.

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, by Mrs. Annie Gregg Savigny, at the Department of Agriculture.

"I would like the Government to forbid the publication of all novels that did not end well."—Darwin.

"What would the world do without story-books."—Dickens.

TORONTO UNIVERSITY, QUEEN'S PARK.

NOTE.

In the following pages are two plots, one of which was told me by an actor therein; the other I have myself watched from its first page to its last, being living facts in living lives of fair Toronto's children.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Toronto a Fair Matron
CHAPTER II. Who is Who in a Medley
CHAPTER III. Instantaneous Photographs
CHAPTER IV. The Foot-ball of Circumstance
CHAPTER V. A Bona Dea
CHAPTER VI. Coffee and Chit-Chat
CHAPTER VII. Across the Sea to a Witch's Caldron
CHAPTER VIII. A Troubled Spirit
CHAPTER IX. Vultures Habited as Christian Pew-holders
CHAPTER X. A Lucifer Match
CHAPTER XI. Their "Rank is but the Guinea's Stamp"
CHAPTER XII. On the Rack
CHAPTER XIII. Lucifer's Votaries Rampant
CHAPTER XIV. Fencing Off Confidence
CHAPTER XV. The Tree of Knowledge
CHAPTER XVI. The Oath in the Tower of Toronto University
CHAPTER XVII. Birds of Prey
CHAPTER XVIII. The Islet-gemmed St. Lawrence
CHAPTER XIX. Eye-openers
CHAPTER XX. "Your Een Were Like a Spell"
CHAPTER XXI. A Happy New Year
CHAPTER XXII. "Better Lo'ed Ye Canna Be"
CHAPTER XXIII. The Three Links
CHAPTER XXIV. A Hand of Ice Lay on Her Heart
CHAPTER XXV. "Here Awa', There Awa'"
CHAPTER XXVI. Electric Tips Among the Roses
CHAPTER XXVII. A Serpent in Paradise
CHAPTER XXVIII. Squaring Accounts
CHAPTER XXIX. "Mair Sweet Than I Can Tell"

A ROMANCE OF TORONTO.

CHAPTER I.

TORONTO A FAIR MATRON.

Two gentlemen friends saunter arm in arm up and down the deck of the palace steamer Chicora as she enters our beautiful Lake Ontario from the picturesque Niagara River, on a perfect day in delightful September, when the blue canopy of the heavens seems so far away, one wonders that the mirrored surface of the lake can reflect its color.

"Do you know, Buckingham, you puzzle me; you were evidently happier in our little circle at the Hoffman House than in billiard, smoking, or reading-rooms, and just now in the saloon you seemed so content with Miss Crew, my wife and our boy, that I again wonder a man with these tastes, and who has made his little pile, does not marry," said Mr. Dale, in flute-like tones, distinctly English in accent. "I really think, my dear fellow, you would be happier in big New York