Books by
RUPERT HUGHES
CLIPPED WINGS. Frontispiece. Post 8vo.
WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY? Illustrated. Post 8vo.
THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER. Frontispiece. 16mo.
EMPTY POCKETS. Illustrated. Post 8vo.
HARPER & BROTHERS. NEW YORK
CLIPPED WINGS
PUBLISHED SERIALLY AS “THE BARGE OF DREAMS”
A NOVEL
BY
Rupert Hughes
AUTHOR OF
“WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY?”
“EMPTY POCKETS” ETC.
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Clipped Wings
Copyright, 1914, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published January, 1916
TO
Robert H. Davis
WITH AFFECTIONATE ADMIRATION
Clipped Wings
CHAPTER I
The proud lady in the new runabout was homewardbound from a shopping raid. It was her firstvoyage down-town alone with the thing. She guidedthe old family horse up to her curb in a graceful sweep,but, like a new elevator-boy, could not come to a stop atthe stopping-place.
She could go forward or back, but she could not exactlynegotiate her own stepping-block. As she blushinglystruggled for it she heard the scream of a child in desperateterror. It inspired an equal terror, for it came from herown house.
She had left her two children at home, expecting playmateguests. She had extracted from them every imaginablepromise to be good and to abstain from danger.But she knew how easily they romped into perils. Sheheard the cry again, and clutched her breast in a littledeath of fear as she half leaped, half toppled from hercarriage and ran up the walk, leaving the horse to hisown devices.
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