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Bella. By EDWARD CHARLES BOOTH, Author of "The Cliff End," "The Doctor's Lass," etc. 6s.
A STORY of life at Spathorpe—perhaps the most beautiful and attractive of all the watering-places on the English East Coast. Rupert Brandor, a young and wealthy man, and a poet with some pretension to fame, comes to Sapthorpe to spend a few weeks of the season. Under rather amusing circumstances he makes the acquaintance on the beach of a young and very fascinating little girl, by name Bella Dysart, who is staying with her mother at Cromwell Lodge—a large and well-known villa on the esplanade. Bella's personal charm and the unsophisticated frankness of her disposition win the poet's interest and affection. Shortly he makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Dysart, and with her enters the new, and deeper, and more dangerous element into the poet's story. As the days go by, the poet and Bella and Mrs. Dysart draw into a closer circle of friendship. Meanwhile, they have come to be noted by Spathorpe's busy eyes. This beautiful woman and her scarcely less beautiful daughter, and the handsome boy, attract a large measure of public notice; and the inevitable whispers arise. Mrs. Dysart's reputation suffers tarnish; her acquaintance with the poet is construed according to the canons of the world. Their uncloaked intimacy acquires the character of scandal. From this point onward the action of the story accelerates. IN the final chapters it is a study in temptation, and the story occupies itself with the youthful and poetic temperament under influence of seductive womanly beauty and the counter-influences of a pure and girlish friendship.
LONDON ; EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.
