Lily Pearl and The Mistress of Rosedale   By: Ida Glenwood

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by underscores .

2. A list spelling corrections, word variations and other information regarding the original text are located at the end of this e text.

[Illustration: IDA GLENWOOD, (The Blind Bard of Michigan.)]

LILY PEARL AND THE MISTRESS OF ROSEDALE

BY IDA GLENWOOD, "The Blind Bard of Michigan."

AUTHOR OF "THE FATAL SECRET," "KATE WYMANS AND THE FORGER'S DAUGHTER," "BLACK FRANCE," ETC.

EDITED BY MAJOR JOSEPH KIRKLAND.

CHICAGO: DIBBLE PUBLISHING CO. 1892.

COPYRIGHT 1892 BY DIBBLE PUBLISHING CO. CHICAGO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PREFACE.

It matters but little to the average reader whether a book be wholly historical or purely imaginary if it be of sufficient interest to hold the attention in a pleasurable excitement to its close.

There are those however, who will be glad to know that the following work was wrought out of historical facts gleaned from a large parcel of letters written by a son while a soldier in the army of the rebellion, to his widowed mother, then in Springfield, Mass.

Graphic were his descriptions of scenes and incidents coming to his personal knowledge during that memorable march from "Atlanta to the sea."

These I have woven into a web of fiction mingling their lights and shadows, blending them as best I could amid denser shades, hoping that peradventure their coming to you, gentle reader, may prove as great a pleasure in the perusing as the author has enjoyed in the weaving.

IDA GLENWOOD. Fenton, Mich.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

My editing of this most interesting story has been little more than proof correction. On reading the manuscript in advance of the type setting I soon found it safer to leave the author's style to take care of itself, sure that it will strike the public, as it struck me, with renewed respect and admiration for one who, sightless, can excel so many of us having all the senses.

It is touching to observe how the blind narrator dwells on outward things, color, light and shade, sunset skies, human features and expressions, which must come to her only in imagination. She seems to dwell with peculiar intensity on a world of beauty which we others, sated by abundance, pass by unrecorded if not unnoticed.

Sightless she is not, for in her the mind's eye is of a brilliancy that seems to make our mere physical vision useless by comparison. Better the soul's sight without eyes, than the eyesight without soul.

JOSEPH KIRKLAND.

PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT.

We would be pleased to have the reading public patronize "LILY PEARL AND THE MISTRESS OF ROSEDALE," because of the benefit to the author, "The Blind Bard of Michigan," and for the pleasure it will give the following gentlemen and firms, who have freely and generously given their time to the production of the work: Major Joseph Kirkland, editor; G. M. D. Libby, printer; L. Braunhold, artist; A. Zeese & Co., electrotypers, and Donohue & Henneberry, binders. But the best reason for buying will be found in the charming story itself.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTERS.

I MIDNIGHT AT "CLIFF HOUSE," 17

II THE LITTLE MARINER ALONE UPON THE OCEAN, 29

III THE WAIF AFTER THE STORM, 39

IV RECEPTION NIGHT AT THE NEW HOME, 50

V DEATH IN THE LITTLE COTTAGE, 61

VI "CRAZY DIMIS" AND THE TWILIGHT SCENE, 71

VII CHANGES IN THE COTTAGE HOME, 81