"A FLASH OF SUMMER".

By
MRS. W. K. CLIFFORD.

Appeared first as a serial in the "Illustrated London News."
The Editor said it was the only novel that had raised the circu-
lation of his paper. It was published first of all as a book
by Methuen at 6/—at 3/6, 2/ and 1/. It went through many
editions, but just before the War it was published at 7d by
Messrs Hodden & Stoughton. It sold immensely for years at
that price till after the Armistice. It is now out of print,
and the price of paper and printing has prevented the publishers
from issuing a new edition, but I think they will after a bit.
It had a great success in America, where it appeared as a serial
before it was published in book form by Messrs Harper of New
York.
The Empress of Germany who used to say She shored
SOWALASSIO L-SEE 116 places described in it. It is
in Tauchnitz edition in this Continent.

Shooter's Hill, in which the first part of the story takes
place, is near Woolwich, but is still countrified. The Great Dover
Road runs to it and over it— from London and on to the sea coast
miles and miles away. From some distance the high trees of Seven
Droog can be seen and Seven Droog Castle in the midst of them.

Everyone on Shooter's Hill knew KATHERINE KERR by sight from
the time she was six years old. She lived in a little white house
hidden among the trees at the corner of the road leading to Seven
Droog with her Uncle Robert (MR MORRIS), and old servant called
SUSAN, and a very old black woolly dog called MARTHA.

Every morning, from the time she was six to seventeen, except
on Sundays, she came out of the gate, went down the hill, past the
Church on one side and the Inn on the other till she came to where
four roads met, or rather two branched off, right and left. One
went to Eltham and the other to Woolwich. She used to stop for a
moment, look down the road that led to Woolwich wondering if, by
chance, the soldiers were coming with their bands, then she looked
to the right towards Eltham. At Eltham there was an old palace
that had a moat, and on the edge of the moat a crane stood on one leg.
When she went to Eltham she always lingered on the bridge leading

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to the palace and wondered what the crane thought about. She felt
certain that it remembered Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn dancing in the
great hall that was now a ruin, hundreds of years ago, and wondered
why the other dancers had not knelt to the King and entreated him
not to cut off Anne's head. Then she walked quickly on for a mile
to a long, low house on the right. This was Mrs Barrett's school.

She carried back a mighty list of lessons with her to learn in
the drawing-room of the white house in the evening. She hardly
knew her schoolfellows, for MR MORRIS (her uncle) did not wish her
to make friends and allowed no visitors. But the school hours were
very happy, for MRS BARRETT was fond of KATHERINE, and when she was
twelve years old gave her a little bag embroidered with forget-me-
nots. When she went home in the late afternoon, if SUSAN gave a
bad report of her and said she had been tiresome at home, UNCLE
ROBERT would give her a cuff on the ears. He was a stern old man
and never took much notice of her, though some times if Súdan gave
a good report he would take her and MARTHA, the big black dog,
for a walk over the hill, where in summer time there was a strawberry
garden. If Uncle Robert were in a good humour she would say coax-
ingly,

"Let's go home through the wood and by Seven Droog Tower."

Often he would say "No, I want to go another way," and she felt how
absolute was his power.

Sometimes Susan took her to Woolwich and gave her cheese-
cakes at the confectioners, etc etc. This was her life until she
was fourteen.

Then one morning UNCLE ROBERT had a letter that seemed to
trouble him. He sent for Susan and Katherine at her sign went out
of the room. After a time she learned that Uncle Robert had had a
son, an only son, who had been in Australia for many years. They
had not been friends, he and his father, but now he was dead and
the old man felt it. Susan told her all about it. A little later
Uncle Robert is rather kinder to her, for as Susan says, she is the
only relation he has left in the world. As she grew a little older
she was worried by the fact that MR BELCHER, the lawyer, came often
to the house to see Uncle Robert. He was the only visitor. There
is an incident of KATHERINE gathering flowers to try and please her
Uncle and dropping the bowl and being scolded before Mr Belcher and
hiding herself in the garden, where he came and jeered at her.

MR BELCHER, who has a prominent part in the story, is a soli-
citor about two and thirty, with a rather mocking manner, with cold
brown eyes, and brown hair brushed back and parted on one side.
He is rather stout and looks as if he is a good deal taken up with
the affairs of life, keen, and with an eye to the main chance.
KATHERINE always quails a little before him, she doesn't know why.

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Two years later KATHERINE is seventeen. Mr MORRIS appears to care more for her, but he silently controls her. Before KATHERINE leaves school, she develops a talent for drawing, not a great one, but enough to go out sketching with her governess, Mrs RAMSAY.

Another pupil (important) is ALICE IRVING, a bright and pretty girl, who delights in Katherine, and wants to go and see her. She is living with her family at Woolwich, where her father, an officer is quartered, but Uncle Robert won't let her go and see anybody and won't let her have any visitors at home. ALICE IRVING calls Uncle Robert "The Ogre", and Mr Belcher, "the Other Ogre". Suddenly Alice Irving's father is ordered to India, Alice goes with him, and so the solitary break in the monotony of katherine's girlhood ends.

On the day she is seventeen, a strange thing happens. Mr Belcher came and shared the birthday-cake that Susan always made he Uncle Robert looked at her in surprise, and says

"In another year or two you ought to be getting a husband."

Mrs Barrett, the old schoolmistress, gave her a copy of "Lalla Rookh." Katherine went down to the old schoolhouse to see her. When she returned, Mr Belcher had arrived. He went forward to meet her and produced a little brown leather case. He opened it and showed a gold neckchain with a little heart covered with turquoises which he gives to her as a present. She accepts it but she isn't grateful for she can't bear him. Uncle Robert gives her a watch which pleases her very much. That evening she goes for a walk with Mr Belcher. She dislikes going, but Uncle Robert makes her go. They go down Ahrewsbury Lane, etc (a quiet turning on Shooter's Hill) and Mr Belcher scares her by asking her if she thinks she would like to be married, and if fright creeps into her heart and stays there in the months that follow.

Mrs Barrett gives up the school and goes and lives in the country.

Mr Belcher's visits become more and more regular, and he takes more and more notice of Katherine as she shrinks from him. SUSAN, the old servant, falls ill. Uncle Robert's lease of the white house comes to an end and the owner refuses to renew it. SUSAN gets worse and telle her that she is going to live with her own people in the country. Mr Belcher comes more and more and brings with him a bull-pup called DOTTEL, and after Martha has been drowned, Katherine takes to the bull-pup. One afternoon she takes it to the woods with her, and sits on the steps thinking that nobody knows she is there.

She is eighteen and a half by this time. Suddenly, while she is hugging the dog, Mr BELCHER appears, sits down by her and says

"Give me a kiss."

She shrinks back in horror.

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Then he says "Do you think you'd like to marry me?"

She tells him "No, he is too old" etc and she doesn't want to be married. He tells her it is all arranged, Uncle Robert wishes it. "Why, Katherine, you'll be Mrs Edward Belcher and live in Montague Place and look after the house and sit at the head of the table."

She rushes off and tells Uncle Robert. Uncle Robert says Nonsense, she must be married, and so on and so on.

Katherine is married to Mr Belcher. There is an account of the honeymoon at Windermere. At first, Mr Belcher is rather pleased with the tall, slim girl that he has married and amused at her being afraid of him.

At the hotel at Windermere they make acquaintance with a Mr and Mrs Oswald, also staying in the hotel, and they all become friends, and during some incidental talk, some boats are mentioned, Mediterranean Cunarders that go from Southampton round by Gilbaltar to Italy. Mr Oswald says he loves Italy. Mr Belcher and Mrs Oswald agree that the King's Road at Brighton is much better.

Katherine keeps up the acquaintance of Mrs Oswald in London and luckily Mr Belcher rather likes both husband and wife.

Katherine often thinks of Martha, the old black dog, lying deep in the muddy Thames, halfway between the Old Swan Pier and North Woolwich.

Then we get to Mr Belcher's house in Tavistock Place. Mr Belcher is thoroughly bored with Katherine a little later, and presently thoroughly disagreeable when he heard that Uncle Robert has an idea of going to Australia, for he has heard that his son married and left some children. Mr Belcher gets frightened, for he thinks that if Uncle Robert finds that his son left a widow and children, Katherine will not get his money.

Gradually Mr Belcher gets more and more disagreeable to Katherine and the old servant Gibson rather sides with him and not with Katherine. There are various illustrations of their life, which would be good for the pictures. The time comes when the Uncle goes to Australia, and before he goes, having found out Belcher more or less, Uncle Robert gives Katherine a couple of hundred pounds and tells her to keep it by her —significantly. It is hers, say nothing to Mr Belcher.

After the Uncle has gone Mr Belcher bullies her, telling her openly that he married her because he thought she would get her uncle's money. His conduct gets worse and worse. One week-end he does away to Brighton with his dog and Katherine is left alone. She thinks that she cannot go on baring her life, and that she will

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go after Uncle Robert, but no, it is impossible — then she determines that she'll go to old Susan in the country and live with her. Susan has written and invited her. Just before she starts, a letter comes enclosing a cheque for £90, a legacy bequeathed her by Mrs Barrett, the schoolmistress, who has died three months before. Thus she has £290, unknown to Mr Belcher. She determines to go to Susan at Bridgwater. She packs her books, and though Gibson, the servant, is rude to her, she departs in a cab, with a box on the top of the cab. The old servant looks after her and says:

"He has kept too tight a hand on her, just as his father did."

on his mother!

Mr Belcher of course is away at Brighton.

Katherine drives away in her cab, cashes her cheque at the bank
gets to Paddington half-paralysed with fear at what she has done,
and five minutes too late for the train.

IMPORTANT. As her box is being lifted from the cab, it slips and falls to the ground, the little straps give way. The porter apologises and ties a bit of rope round it, and as the train is not going for two hours, she has time to sit down and rest.

In the station she sees an advertisement of Genoa, and she
thinks of the blue Mediterranean and the mountains, and of Mrs
Oswald's description of the Cunards that went round by Gibraltar and
up the Mediterranean. She cries to herself — "I will go, I will
go," and wonders how she can get to Southampton from where they sail.
She goes to a shipping office in Waterloo Place, takes her ticket
for Genoa, gives her name as Katherine Kerr, finds that the station
for Southampton is Waterloo, drives there with her box, and four
hours later, she is at Southampton. Then she finds the boats do
not sail for a day or two, and she has to stay at the hotel alone.

She stops before a trunk shop, remembers her box has been
nadly mended, buys a new one, and a suit-case and other things
that make her look like an ordinary traveller so that Mr Belcher
may not trace her. The old box is given to a chambermaid who has
told her that in a week's time she is going to America, and who is
glad to have the box. It showed he noted what ship has arrived or is
coming.

She goes on board as early as possible, there are very few
passengers, and she gets a cabin to herself. When she has shut the
door, she sits on the sofa-berth beneath the port-hole and listens
to all the business overhead. Presently the ship starts, and look-
ing out of the porthole again, her eyes catch a gleam of gold.

It is the wedding ring on her third finger. She flings it
off and throws it into the sea. "It is all over," she says, "and
I am free."

By a chance on the way to Gibraltar, her old schoolfellow,
Alice Irving, now married, comes on board with her husband Captain

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Alford and his mother. Alice Alford is going out to India to rejoin her husband. Jim Alford's brother, is coming from India later to join his mother, While Alice goes out with her husband and child. Katherine goes with old Mrs. Alford to Monte Generoso and becomes her companion there. Mrs. Alford does not dream that Katherine is married; indeed no one does. She is very happy.

After a time Jim Alford comes from India and arrives at Monte Generoso and the love-story of the book follows. Katherine falls desperately in love with him and he with her. She tries to tell him her history but her courage fails, she sees that Mrs. Alford and Jim have strange ideas about marriage &c. Mrs. Alford becomes devoted to Katherine and wants her to marry Jim. Jim proposes to her and is refused, to his astonishment. There are lovely pictures of the life here.

At last one evening she is at bay. She stands up in the sitting-room they have together and tells Mrs. Alford and Jim that she is married. The next day she goes away, without their knowledge, from Monte Generoso with a Miss Martin - an invalid - who has been staying at the Hotel. She reappears at Alassio with Miss Martin. Various scenes at Alassio, which is a beautiful place.

N.B. This book is very popular at Alassio. I was told recently that it is in the library, that everybody reads it there, &c. &c. The German Empress, who chanced to read it, was charmed with it, and said she should go to Alassio, but I do not know if she ever went.

Miss Martin goes to live in a pension at Alassio, and Katherine goes to a little place quite near called Laigueglia, where there is a beautiful white marble church. She takes a little room there and lives very quietly, tormented at knowing nothing about Jim, but thankful to be away from Mr. Belcher and loving the beauty of the place.

One fine day on the beech she meets Mr. and Mrs. Osbeck. Osbeck, the friends she had first met at Windermere. They are astounded at seeing her, tell her that everybody thought she was dead, for her box had been found in the Atlantic, empty and bobbing about, with her name on it. It was the broken box she had given to the chamber-maid at Southampton. Mr. Belcher had not married again. Uncle Robert had discovered a wife and children in Australia.

So the story develops. Jim discovers her at Laigueglia, takes leave of her, and goes to India, and, under persuasion, she reveals herself to Uncle Robert, who as a matter of duty, tells Belcher that his wife is alive. Katherine gets back to England, goes to Shooter's Hill and looks at the old places, then goes to Chilworth to see Mrs. Alford - Jim's mother - who has returned there. Mrs. Alford is very ill and dying. There is a charming old servant at Mrs. Alford's house, who gives Katherine food and makes much of her, and is going to take her

Alford in her room (She hasn't seen her yet), when a knock comes at the door and Katherine, listening, hears Mr Belcher's voice asking for her. He comes in and there is a cruel scene — he has come to fetch her. He has brought Dottel with him. Katherine entreats him to let her IN HERE see Mrs Alford first. He refuses. Finally, she is obliged to go with him. At Chilworth they wait for the train, and he says he is going to give her a kiss when they start, but luckily there is no empty carriage. He takes her back to London back to Montague Place. Dinner is laid.

Katherine tells him that she will not live with him. She sits down and food is brought in.

The street door has been opened for some reason, the sound of Dottell, fighting without, is heard. Gibson, the servant, says that Dottell has escaped and is fighting a strange dog. Mr Belcher gets up and significantly takes a whip from a side door, looks at Katherine as if he would use it upon her and goes out to separate the dogs. Katherine, waiting in dread and fear, hears a cry, goes out.

In a minute a crowd has gathered, there is a motor in the midst of Mr Belcher trying to separate the dogs with his whip, has been caught by the motor. He is carried in in a dying condition. He is laid down on the rug, Katherine kneels beside him. That is the end, except that there is a picture of Jim Alford on the boat going to India, but feeling that he must and will come back, that he cannot live without Katherine.

N.B. There are lots of picturesque scenes, at Shooter's Hill, at the Lakes, Windermere, etc; good scenes in London, of Katherine's escape via Southampton to Italy, scenes at Monte Generoso, lovely scenes at Alassio, and Laigueglia, of her journey back to England, of Uncle Robert and a French woman he surprisingly marries; of Katherine arriving at Chilworth, of Mrs Alford's house, of Belcher coming to fetch her, of the journey back to London, of the dinner and Belcher's death, and of Jim Alford on board thinking of Katherine and of course, we know that he comes back to marry her.

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room. After a time she learned that **Uncle Robert** had had a son, an only son, who had been in Australia for many years. He and his father had quarrelled: but now he was dead and the old man felt it. After this **Uncle Robert** is kinder to **Katherine** for, as **Susan** says, she is the only relation he has left in the world. As she grows older she is worried by the fact that **Mr. Belcher**, the lawyer, came often to the house to see **Uncle Robert**. He was the only visitor. There is an incident of **Katherine** gathering flowers to try and please her Uncle and dropping the bowl and breaking it and, being scolded, hiding herself in the garden, where **Mr. Belcher** came and jeered at her. (See book.)

(Mr. Belcher, who has a prominent part in the story, is a lawyer, about seven and thirty, with a mocking manner, cold brown eyes, and brown hair brushed back and parted on one side. He is rather stout and looks as if he is a good deal taken up with the affairs of life, keen, and with an eye to the main chance. Katherine always quails a little before him.)

Before **Katherine** leaves school, she develops a talent for drawing, sufficient to go sketching sometimes with her governess, Mrs. Ramsey and a schoolfellow, Alice Irving, a bright and pretty girl who delights in **Katherine** and wants to go and see her. She is living with her family at Woolwich, where her father, an officer, is quartered, but Uncle Robert won't let her have any visitors at home, nor will he let her visit anybody. Alice calls him "The Ogre" and Mr. Belcher, "The Other Ogre". Suddenly Alice's father is ordered to India and Alice goes with him, so the solitary break in the monotony of Katherine's girlhood ends.