CHAPTER XVIII
AT STRATFORD-ON-AVON
A review of Marie Corelli's life from the time
she left her convent-school to the present day,
shapes as a record of intellectual activity rather
than one of movement or incident of an anecdotal
nature. But although the novelist has never
actually gone out of her way to study local color,
she has traveled all over Europe; as, during her
stepfather's long illness and the constant strain of
anxiety entailed upon her by his condition, it was
necessary for her to take at least one month's rest
and change of air in the course of each year.
These annual holidays were spent in various parts
of Europe—in France, Italy, Holland, Switzerland,
and Germany—and during her travels she was
never idle, but always at work recording notes of
scenes, seasons, and events. The locale of Combmartin
was carefully studied by her before she
ever wrote "The Mighty Atom"; and, as the many
tourists who have visited the neighborhood since
on account of the story can testify, both that village
