THE IMPRUDENCE OF PRUE

"Permit your slave——" Page 220.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I The Price of a Kiss
II Lady Drumloch
III Sir Geoffrey's Arrival
IV The Money-Lender Intervenes
V A Widow on Monday
VI A Matter of Title
VII A Wedding-Ring for a Kiss
VIII An Order for a Parson
IX The Wedding
X The Folly of Yesterday
XI The Morrow's Wakening
XII The Price of a Birthright
XIII The Sealed Packet
XIV A Pair of Gloves
XV The Red Domino
XVI At the Unmasking
XVII Lady Barbara's News
XVIII The Den of the Highwayman
XIX In the Duchess' Apartments
XX A Threat and a Promise
XXI An Affair of Family
XXII In A Chairman's Livery
XXIII The Parson Sells a Secret
XXIV A Supper for Three
XXV A Confession
XXVI Preparations for a Journey
XXVII A Different Highwayman
XXVIII The Dearest Treasure

THE IMPRUDENCE OF PRUE

CHAPTER I

THE PRICE OF A KISS

"Stand and deliver!"

The words rang out in the gathering darkness of the February evening. The jaded horses, exhausted with dragging a cumbrous chariot through the miry lanes and rugged by-roads of the rough moorland, obeyed the command with promptitude, disregarding the lash of the postboy and the valiant oaths of a couple of serving-men in the rumble.

"Keep still, unless you wish me to blow out what you are pleased to consider your brains," said the highwayman. "My pistols have an awkward habit of going off of their own accord when I am not instantly obeyed—so don't provoke them."