THE DUKE IN THE SUBURBS
By
EDGAR WALLACE
Author of "Four Just Men," "The Council of Justice," etc
LONDON
WARD LOCK & CO LIMITED
1909
Dedication
TO
MARION CALDECOTT
WITH THE AUTHOR'S
HOMAGE
Author's Apology
The author, who is merely an inventorof stories, may at little cost impresshis readers with the scope of his generalknowledge. For he may place the scene ofhis story in Milan at the Court of the Viscontiand throw back the action half a thousandyears, drawing across his stage splendidfigures slimly silked or sombrely satined, andfill their mouths with such awsome oaths as"By Bacchus!" or "Sapristi!" and thelike. He may also, does the fine fancy seizehim, take for his villain no less a personagethan Monseigneur, for hero a FlorentineCount, as bright lady of the piece, a swooningflower of the Renaissance, all pink andwhite, with a bodice of plum velvet cutsquare at the breast, and showing themilk-white purity of her strong young throat.
It is indeed a more difficult matter whenone is less of an inventor, than a painstakingrecorder of facts.
When our characters are conventionallyattired in trousers of the latest fashion, andransacking mythology the oath-makers canaccept no god worthier of witness than HighJove.
Greatest of all disabilities consider thisfact: that the scene must be laid inBrockley, S.E., a respectable suburb of London,and you realize the apparent hopelessnessof the self-imposed task of the writer whowould weave romance from such unpromisingmaterial.
It would indeed seem well-nigh hopelessto extract the exact proportions of tragedyand farce from Kymott Crescent that goto make your true comedy, were it not forthe intervention of the Duke, of Hank,his friend, of Mr. Roderick Nape, of BigBill Slewer of Four Ways, Texas, and last,but by no means least, Miss Alicia Terrill of"The Ferns," 66, Kymott Crescent.
Contents
PART I
...