Harold Macgrath

The Lure of the Mask Annotated Harold Macgrath

he Lure of the Mask is a 1908 novel by Harold MacGrath that was the fourth-best selling book in the United States for that year. The story opens with a jump--literally. A young New Yorker, rich, of course, hears from his window on a night of fog and mist a woman's voice singing divinely. He falls in love with it head over heels and he falls downstairs in about the same way, he is such a hurry to see the singer. But by the time her reaches the street, lo! she has vanished, and only a policeman remains. Late on, this young, adventurous Mr. Hillard again meets the young, adventurous singer under most mystifying circumstances. They dine together, but she comes in mask.