1 6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements, 



NEW SIX-SHILLING NOVELS. 

 BELLA. 



By EDWARD CHARLES BOOTH, 



AUTHOR OF "THE CLIFF END," "THE DOCTOR'S LASS," ETC. 



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 

 prevention to fame, comes to Spathorpe to spend a few weeks of the 

 season. Under rather amusing circumstances he makes the ac- 

 quaintance 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 ac- 

 quaintance 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 un- 

 cloaked 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. 



FOLLOWING DARKNESS. 



By FORREST REID, 



AUTHOR OF "THE BRACKNELS." 



A study of boyhood and adolescence. The hero is the son of 

 a National schoolmaster in a village on the north coast of Ireland, 

 and the contrast of temperaments ^between father and son is from 

 the beginning strongly marked. A'^domestic tragedy having culmin- 

 ated in the disappearance of his mother, the boy becomes the protege 

 of a wealthy lady living in the neighbourhood. Her influence, 

 though quite unconsciously exercised, and still more the influence of 

 her surroundings, of the house above all, which occupies a distinct 

 place in the story, tend to widen still further the breach between him 

 and his father, though both from time to time make efforts to bridge 



