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                            JULIA FRANCE AND
                               HER TIMES

                               _A NOVEL_

                                   BY
                           GERTRUDE ATHERTON


                                New York
                         THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                                  1912
                         _All rights reserved_




                            COPYRIGHT, 1912,
                       BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
                 *        *        *        *        *
            Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1912.

                             Norwood Press
                 J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
                         Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




                                   TO
                               MRS. FISKE




                                CONTENTS


                                                PAGE
                                 BOOK I

                    MRS. EDIS                      1

                                BOOK II

                    THREE POTTERS                 39

                                BOOK III

                    HAROLD FRANCE                191

                                BOOK IV

                    HADJI SADRÄ                  273

                                 BOOK V

                    DANIEL TAY                   361

                                BOOK VI

                    FANNY                        453




                                 BOOK I
                                MRS. EDIS


                                   I

THE entrance of a British cruiser into the harbor of St. Kitts was
always followed by a ball at Government House in the little capital of
Basse Terre. To-night there was a squadron of three at anchor; therefore
was the entertainment offered by the island’s President even more
tempting than common, and hospitality had been extended to the officials
and distinguished families of the neighboring islands, Nevis, Antigua,
and Monserrat. On Nevis there remained but one family of eminence, that
great rock having been shorn long since of all but its imperishable
beauty.

But Mrs. Edis of “Great House,” an old stone mansion unaffected by time,
earthquake, or hurricane, and surrounded by a remnant of one of the
oldest estates in the West Indies, was still a personage in spite of her
fallen fortunes, and to-night she contributed a young daughter. The
introduction of Julia Edis to society had been expected all