Rosemary in Search of a Father

								


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Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  ROSEMARY
IN SEARCH
OF A
FATHER


BY
C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON


NEW YORK


McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
MCMVII

  Copyright, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co.

  The illustrations in the book are by William Hatherell

   and the decorations by Thomas Maitland Cleland

  To Minda

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER                                   PAGE



     I. THE WHITE GIRL ON THE TERRACE:

        THE ROSE GIRL AT THE CASINO            3



    II. THE ROSE GIRL'S LITTLE STORY, AND

        GREAT EYES                            21



   III. WHEN THE CURTAIN WAS DOWN             40



    IV. DOGS AND FATHERS                      48



     V. ROSEMARY IN SEARCH OF A FATHER        62



    VI. FAIRY FATHERS MUST VANISH             78



   VII. THE WHITE FIGURE AT THE DOOR          94


VIII. WHEN A MAN GOES SHOPPING             108



    IX. THE LAST WORD OF MADEMOISELLE        128

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  EVELYN AND ROSEMARY CLIMBED HAND
IN HAND, WHILE HUGH CARRIED TWO
HUGE BASKETS                         Frontispiece



                                                 PAGE


HE TOOK OFF HALF, AND WAS LEAVING
THE REST TO RUN, WHEN A VOICE CLOSE
TO HIS SHOULDER, SAID, "OH, DO TAKE
IT ALL OFF"                                      12


WITH A CRASH OF MACHINERY HE BROUGHT
THE BIG BLUE CAR TO A STOP                       70


HE CRUSHED THEM IN HIS, THEN BENT
HIS HEAD AND KISSED THEM                        102


THEY CAME NEARER, NEAR ENOUGH FOR
MADEMOISELLE TO RECOGNISE THE MAN
WITH THEM                                       124


THEIR FLUFFY LACES BURNT AND BLACKENED.
CHIFFON FICHUS TORN IN RIBBONS
STREWED THE CARPET                              138

ROSEMARY IN SEARCH OF A FATHER

CHAPTER ONE
THE WHITE GIRL ON THE TERRACE: THE ROSE GIRL AT THE CASINO

There was a young man in Monte Carlo. He had come in a motor car, and he
had come a long way, but he hardly knew why he had come. He hardly knew
in these days why he did anything. But then, one must do something.
It would be Christmas soon, and he thought that he would rather get it
over on the Riviera than anywhere else, because the blue and gold
weather would not remind him of other Christmases which were gone--pure,
white, cold Christmases, musical with joy-bells and sweet with aromatic
pine, the scent of trees born to be Christmas trees.
There had been a time when he had fancied it would be a wonderful thing
to see the Riviera. He had thought what it would be like to be a rich
man, and bring a certain girl here for a moon of honey and roses.
She was the most beautiful girl in the world, or he believed her so,
which is exactly the same thing; and he had imagined the joy of walking