



Produced by Al Haines.





[Illustration: "Permit your slave——" _Page_ 220.]




                            *The Imprudence
                                of Prue*


                         _*By*_* SOPHIE FISHER*



                        With Four Illustrations
                           By HERMAN PFEIFER



                           A. L. BURT COMPANY
                          PUBLISHERS NEW YORK




                             COPYRIGHT 1911
                       THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY




                               *CONTENTS*

CHAPTER

I  The Price of a Kiss
II  Lady Drumloch
III  Sir Geoffrey’s Arrival
IV  The Money-Lender Intervenes
V  A Widow on Monday
VI  A Matter of Title
VII  A Wedding-Ring for a Kiss
VIII  An Order for a Parson
IX  The Wedding
X  The Folly of Yesterday
XI  The Morrow’s Wakening
XII  The Price of a Birthright
XIII  The Sealed Packet
XIV  A Pair of Gloves
XV  The Red Domino
XVI  At the Unmasking
XVII  Lady Barbara’s News
XVIII  The Den of the Highwayman
XIX  In the Duchess’ Apartments
XX  A Threat and a Promise
XXI  An Affair of Family
XXII  In A Chairman’s Livery
XXIII  The Parson Sells a Secret
XXIV  A Supper for Three
XXV  A Confession
XXVI  Preparations for a Journey
XXVII  A Different Highwayman
XXVIII  The Dearest Treasure




                        *THE IMPRUDENCE OF PRUE*



                              *CHAPTER I*

                         *THE PRICE OF A KISS*


"Stand and deliver!"

The words rang out in the gathering darkness of the February evening.
The jaded horses, exhausted with dragging a cumbrous chariot through the
miry lanes and rugged by-roads of the rough moorland, obeyed the command
with promptitude, disregarding the lash of the postboy and the valiant
oaths of a couple of serving-men in the rumble.

"Keep still, unless you wish me to blow out what you are pleased to
consider your brains," said the highwayman.  "My pistols have an awkward
habit of going off of their own accord when I am not instantly obeyed—so
don’t provoke them."

The postilion became as still as a statue and the footmen, under cover
of the self-acting pistols, descended, grumbling but unresisting,
yielded up their rusty blunderbusses with a transparent show of
reluctance and withdrew to a respectful distance, while the highwayman
dismounted, opened the carriage door and throwing the light of a lantern
within, revealed the shrinking forms of two women muffled in cloaks and
hoods.

One of them uttered a shriek of terror when the door was opened and
incoherently besought the highwayman to spare two lone, defenseless
women.

The highwayman thrust his head in and peered round eagerly, as though in
search of other passengers. Then, pulling off his slouch-brimmed hat, he
revealed a pair of dark eyes that gleamed fiercely from behind a mask,
and as much of a bronzed and weather-beaten face as it left uncovered.
Black hair, loosely gathered in a ribbon and much disordered by wind and
rain, added considerably to the wildness of his aspect, and the
uncertain light of the lantern flickered upon several weapons besides
the pistols he carried so carelessly.

"I shall not hurt you, Madam," he exclaimed impatiently.  "Your money
and jewels are all I seek.  I expected to find a very different booty
here and must hasten elsewhere lest I miss it altogether by this
confounded mishap.  So let me advise you to waste neither my time nor
your own breath in useless lamentations, but hasten to hand out your
purses and diamonds."

"We have neither, Mr. Highwayman," said the other lady in a clear,
musical voice, quite free from tremor.  "I am a poor widow without a
penny in the world, flying from my creditors to take refuge with a
relative almost as poor as myself.  This is my companion—alack for her!
The wage I owe her might make her passing rich if ever ’twere paid—but
it never will be."

"Do poor widows travel in coach and four with serving-men and maids?"
demanded the highwayman with an incredulous laugh.  "Come, ladies, I am
well used to these excuses.  Do not put me to the disagreeable necessity
of setting you down in the mud while I search your carriage
and—mayhap—your fair selves."

The lady threw back her hooded cloak, revealing a face and form of rare
beauty, and extended two white hands and arms, bare to the elbow and
entirely devoid of ornament.  In one hand she held a little purse
through whose silken meshes glittered a few pieces of money.

"This is all the money I have in the wide world," she said,