[Frontispiece: FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN AS JOHN D. CURTIS.
BEVERLY BAYNE AS LADY HERMIONE.]

ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT

A ROMANCE OF NEW YORK

BY

LOUIS TRACY

AUTHOR OF
MIRABEL'S ISLAND, THE WINGS OF THE MORNING, ETC.

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
EDWARD J. CLODE

A FOREWORD

Moving picture enthusiasts who reveled in the romantic mysteries thattangled the plot of ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT will find even more pleasure inreading this fascinating story.

"THE LADIES' WORLD" contest—the greatest in the history of motionpictures—has just come to a close. Under the auspices of the "Ladies'World" with its million circulation monthly, moving picture lovers allover the United States have been voting for the actor to impersonatethe heroic part of John Delancy Curtis in the photo-play of ONEWONDERFUL NIGHT—probably the most interesting and absorbingpresentation ever made on the screen.

Five million, four hundred and forty-thousand, seven-hundred and sixtyvotes were cast. Francis Bushman won the prize. With a vote of1,806,630 he was chosen the typical American hero. In the EssanayCompany's elaborate production of ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT, Mr. Bushman issupported by a strong cast, including beautiful Beverly Bayne as LadyHermione.

Those who have witnessed the photo-play production will find the bookeven more intensely interesting. The hero, John Delancy Curtis, dropsin from Pekin, China, for a brief rest from strenuous engineering work,and on his first night in New York finds a marriage license in thepocket of a murdered man's coat, rushes off in a taxi to the address ofthe woman named therein, marries her, punches a frantic rival on thenose, flouts her father (an English baronet), takes the fair one to ahotel, holds a banquet at which the Chief of Police of New York is anhonored guest, and sits down to gaze contentedly into the future ofbliss that a half a million a year will bring.

We bespeak for the reader pleasure, entertainment and diversion in thisabsorbing and unusual story.

CONTENTS