James Matthew Barrie

The Kirriemuir Edition of the Works of J.M. Barrie (Volume 3) James Matthew Barrie

Publisher Marketing: This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVII HOW TOMMY SAVED THE FLAG He loved at last, but had no time to exult just now, for he could not rejoice with Tommy while his dear one drooped in shame. Ah, so well he understood that she believed she had done the unpardonable thing in woman, and that while she thought so she must remain a broken column. It was a great task he saw before him, nothing less than to make her think that what she had done was not shameful but exquisite, that she had not tarnished the flag of love but glorified it. Artfulness, you will see, was needed, but, remember, he was now using all his arts in behalf of the woman he loved. 'You were so long in coming back to me, Grizel. The agony of it!' 'Did it seem long?' She spoke in a trembling voice, hiding her face in him. She listened like one anxious to seize his answer as it left his heart. 'So long, ' he answered, 'that it seemed to me we must be old when we met again. I saw a future without you stretching before me to the grave, and I turned and ran from it.' 'That is how I felt, ' she whispered. 'You !' Tommy cried, in excellent amazement. 'What else could have made me come?' 'I thought it was pity that had brought you. Pity for me, Grizel. I thought you had perhaps come back to be angry with me' 'How could I be !' she cried. 'How could you help it, rather?' said he. 'I was cruel, Grizel, I spoke like a fool as well as like a dastard, but it was only anxiety for Elspeth that made me do it. Dear one, be angry with me as often as you choose, and whether I deserve it or not, but don't go away from me; never send me from you again. Anything but that.' It was how she had felt again, and her hold on him tightened with sudden joy. So well he knew what that grip meant! He did not tell her that he had not loved her fully unt... Contributor Bio:  Barrie, James Matthew J. M. Barrie was born in 1860, the ninth of ten children of hard-working parents in Scotland's jute-weaving industry. Fascinated by stories of her own life told him by his mother, he was determined to write, finding work on the Nottingham Journal after graduating from Edinburgh University. In 1885, he moved to London as a freelance writer and successfully sold the Auld Licht Idylls, a volume based on his mother's tales. By the time Peter Pan opened on the London stage in 1904, Barrie had written more than thirty novels and plays, many autobiographical and several of them major hits such as The Little Minister, Quality Street and The Admirable Crichton. Knighted and awarded the Order of Merit he continued writing into old age. He died in 1937.