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HOUSE OF TORMENT

A Tale of the Remarkable Adventures of Mr. John Commendone
Gentleman to King Philip II of Spain at the English Court

by

C. RANGER-GULL

Author of "The Serf," etc.







New York
Dodd, Mead and Company
1911

Published September, 1911

The Quinn & Boden Co. Press
Rahway, N. J.




DEDICATION TO DAVID WHITELAW

SOUVENIR OF A LONG FRIENDSHIP


     _My dear David,_

     _Since I first met you, considerably more than a decade ago, in
     a little studio high up in a great London building, we have
     both seen much water flow under the bridges of our lives._

     _We have all sorts of memories, have we not?_

     _Late midnights and famishing morrows, in the gay hard days
     when we were endeavouring to climb the ladder of our Art; a
     succession of faces, a welter of experiences. Some of us fell
     in the struggle; others failed and still haunt the reprobate
     purlieus of Fleet Street and the Strand! There was one who
     achieved a high and delicate glory before he died--"Tant va la
     cruche a l'eau qu'a la fin elle se casse."_

     _There is another who is slowly and surely finding his way to a
     certainty of fame._

