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Transcriber's note:

   Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully
   as possible; please see detailed list of printing issues at the
   end of the text.





A BLACK ADONIS.

by

ALBERT ROSS.


       *       *       *       *       *

  THE
  ALBATROSS NOVELS

  By ALBERT ROSS

  23 Volumes

  May be had wherever books are sold at the price you paid for this volume

    Black Adonis, A
    Garston Bigamy, The
    Her Husband's Friend
    His Foster Sister
    His Private Character
    In Stella's Shadow
    Love at Seventy
    Love Gone Astray
    Moulding a Maiden
    Naked Truth, The
    New Sensation, A
    Original Sinner, An
    Out of Wedlock
    Speaking of Ellen
    Stranger Than Fiction
    Sugar Princess, A
    That Gay Deceiver
    Their Marriage Bond
    Thou Shalt Not
    Thy Neighbor's Wife
    Why I'm Single
    Young Fawcett's Mabel
    Young Miss Giddy

  G. W. DILLINGHAM CO.
  Publishers  ::  ::   New York

       *       *       *       *       *


A BLACK ADONIS.

by

ALBERT ROSS.

Author of
 "Out of Wedlock," "Speaking of Ellen," "Thou Shalt Not,"
 "Why I'm Single," "Love at Seventy," Etc., Etc.


   "You see!" he answered, bitterly. "Because I am black I
   cannot touch the hand of a woman that is white. And yet you
   say the Almighty made of one blood all nations of the
   earth!"--Page 212.





New York:
Copyright, 1896, by G. W. Dillingham.
G. W. Dillingham Co., Publishers.
[All rights reserved.]





CONTENTS.

 Chapter                                         Page

      I. A Rejected Manuscript                      9

     II. "Was my story too bold?"                  23

    III. "Her feet were pink"                      35

     IV. With Titian Tresses                       49

      V. Studying Miss Millicent                   65

     VI. "How the women stare!"                    79

    VII. A Dinner at Midlands                      93

   VIII. Holding Her Hand                          99

     IX. "Daisy, my darling!"                     110

      X. "Oh, so many, many maids!"               121

     XI. Archie Pays Attention                    136

    XII. Dining at Isaac's                        143

   XIII. A Question of Color                      155

    XIV. "Let us have a betrayal"                 166

     XV. The Green-Eyed Monster                   177

    XVI. "I've had such luck!"                    190

   XVII. A Burglar in the House                   198

  XVIII. Black and White                          204

    XIX. "Play out your farce"                    215

     XX. Like a Stuck Pig                         226

    XXI. "We want Millie to understand"           238

   XXII. Where Was Daisy?                         246

  XXIII. An Awful Night                           254

   XXIV. "This ends it, then?"                    263

    XXV. An Undiscoverable Secret                 273

   XXVI. "I played, and I lost"                   282

  XXVII. Absolutely Blameless                     292

 XXVIII. Trapping a Wolf                          301

   XXIX. "The Greatest Novel"                     309




TO MY READERS.


I do not know how better to use the space that the printer always leaves
me in this part of the book than to redeem the promise I made at the end
of my last novel, and tell you in a few words what became of Blanche
Brixton Fantelli and her husband.

But, do you really need to be told?

Could they have done anything else than live in connubial felicity,
after the man had proved himself so noble and the woman had learned to
appreciate him at his true worth?

Well, whether they could or not, they didn't. Blanche is the happiest of
wedded wives. She still holds to her theory that marriage is based on
wrong principles, and that the contract as ordinarily made is
frightfully immoral; but she says if all men were like "her Jules" there
would be no trouble.

In this she proves herself essentially feminine. She is learning, albeit
a little late, that man was not made to live alone, and that the love a
mother feels for her child is not the only one that brings joy to a
woman's breast.

Fantelli does not claim that Blanche is his property. He is her lover
still, even though he has gained the law's permission to be her master.
He recognizes that she has rights in herself that are inviolable. This
is why they live together so content