CHAPTER III.

THE ELUSIVE JOAN The sun shone brightly across Darville’s sitting-room, as next morning he sat down as usual to write. He placed before him the blank sheets of ruled manuscript paper, which bore a red line from top to bottom, making the margin, and with a sigh took up his fountain pen and began to work in that uneven scribbly hand, specimens of which were ever and anon reproduced among the handwritings of popular authors. His writing was characteristic of a man of erratic temperament who scribbled swiftly, as indee…