The Return of Peter Grimm

NOVELISED FROM THE PLAY

BY

DAVID BELASCO

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN RAE

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

Copyright, 1912

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

"I believe," said Peter irrelevantly, "that St. Paul was a single man, was he not, Pastor?"

"Who's in the room!" he demanded

"Sleep well," said Peter Grimm. "I wish you the very pleasantest of dreams a boy could have in this world"

CHAPTER I

A MAN AND A MAID

The train drew to a halt at the Junction. There was a fine jolt that ran the length of the cars, followed by a clank of couplings and a half-intelligible call from the conductor.

The passengers,—dusty, jaded, crossly annoyed at the need of changing cars,—gathered up their luggage and filed out onto the bare, roofless station platform. There, after a look down the long converging rails in vain hope of sighting the train they were to take, they fell to glancing about the cheerless station environs.

Far away were rolling hills, upland fields of wind-swept wheat, cool, dark stretches of woodland. But around the station were areas of ill-kept lots, with here and there a jerry-built cottage, sadly in need of shoring, and bereft of paint. Across the road on one side stood the general