Modeste Mignonby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Katharine Prescott WormeleyDEDICATIONTo a Polish Lady.Daughter of an enslaved land, angel through love, witch throughfancy, child by faith, aged by experience, man in brain, woman inheart, giant by hope, mother through sorrows, poet in thy dreams,to THEE belongs this book, in which thy love, thy fancy, thyexperience, thy sorrow, thy hope, thy dreams, are the warp throughwhich is shot a woof less brilliant than the poesy of thy soul,whose expression, when it shines upon thy countenance, is, tothose who love thee, what the characters of a lost language are to...　

　Acknowledgments　　A casebook edition of any work of literature is necessarily the result of work and good will by numerous people. We are deeply indebted to the writers who contributed the original materials contained in this volume.　We also wish to thank the authors, editors, and publishers who so kindly granted permissions for use of the previously published materials collected in this volume. Full acknowledgment for their valuable aid is printed in the headnote for each of the articles as well as original sources of publication.　The editors gratefully acknowledge the special courtesies of William Golding, J. T. C. Golding, Frank Kermode, Donald R. Spangler, Bruce P. Woodford, A. C. Will　

A Smaller History of Greeceby William SmithCONTENTS.CHAPTER I . . Geography of Greece.CHAPTER II . . Origin of the Greeks, and the Heroic Age.CHAPTER III . . General Survey of the Greek People.National Institutions.CHAPTER IV . . Early History of Peloponnesus and Sparta tothe end of the Messenian Wars, B.C. 668.CHAPTER V . . Early History of Athens down to theEstablishment of Democracy by Clisthenes,B.C. 510.CHAPTER VI . . The Greek Colonies.CHAPTER VII . . The Persian Wars.From the Ionic Revolt tothe Battle of Marathon, B.C. 500-490....　

Sketches New and Oldby Mark TwainSKETCHES NEW AND OLDCONTENTS:PREFACEMY WATCHPOLITICAL ECONOMYTHE JUMPING FROGJOURNALISM IN TENNESSEETHE STORY OF THE BAD LITTLE BOYTHE STORY OF THE GOOD LITTLE BOYA COUPLE OF POEMS BY TWAIN AND MOORENIAGARAANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTSTO RAISE POULTRYEXPERIENCE OF THE MCWILLIAMSES WITH MEMBRANOUS CROUPMY FIRST LITERARY VENTUREHOW THE AUTHOR WAS SOLD IN NEWARKTHE OFFICE BOREJOHNNY GREERTHE FACTS IN THE CASE OF THE GREAT BEEF CONTRACTTHE CASE OF GEORGE FISHERDISGRACEFUL PERSECUTION OF A BOYTHE JUDGES "SPIRITED WOMAN"INFORMATION WANTEDSOME LEARNED FABLES, FOR GOOD OLD BOYS AND GIRLSMY LATE SENATORIAL SECRETARYSHIP...　

The Price She Paidby David Graham PhillipsIHENRY GOWER was dead at sixty-onethe end of a lifelong fraud which never had been suspected, and never would be. With the world, with his acquaintances and neighbors, with his wife and son and daughter, he passed as a generous, warm-hearted, good-natured man, ready at all times to do anything to help anybody, incapable of envy or hatred or meanness. In fact, not once in all his days had he ever thought or done a single thing except for his own comfort. Like all intensely selfish people who are wise, he was cheerful and amiable, because that was the way to be healthy and happy and to have those around one agreeable and in the mood to do what one 　

Villa Rubein and Other Storiesby John GalsworthyContents:Villa RubeinA Man of DevonA KnightSalvation of a ForsyteThe SilencePREFACEWriting not long ago to my oldest literary friend, I expressed in amoment of heedless sentiment the wish that we might have again one ofour talks of long-past days, over the purposes and methods of ourart. And my friend, wiser than I, as he has always been, repliedwith this doubting phrase "Could we recapture the zest of that oldtime?"I would not like to believe that our faith in the value ofimaginative art has diminished, that we think it less worth while to...　

The Dustby David Graham PhillipsThe Grain of DustA NOVELBYDAVID GRAHAM PHILLIPSTHE GRAIN OF DUSTIINTO the offices of Lockyer, Sanders, Benchley, Lockyer & Norman, corporation lawyers, there drifted on a December afternoon a girl in search of work at stenography and typewriting. The firm was about the most important and most famousradical orators often said infamousin New York. The girl seemed, at a glance, about as unimportant and obscure an atom as the city hid in its vast ferment. She was blondetawny hair, fair skin, blue eyes. Aside from this hardly conclusive mark of identity there was nothing positive, nothing definite, about her. She was neither tall nor short, neither fat nor th　

　　Captain Sir Horatio Hornblower sat in his bath, regarding with distaste his legs dangling over the end. They were thin and hairy, and recalled to his mind the legs of the spiders he had seen in Central America. It was hard to think about anything except his legs, seeing how much they were forced upon his attention by their position under his nose as he sat in this ridiculous bath; they hung out at one end while his body protruded from the water at the other. It was only the middle portion of him, from his waist to above his knees, which was submerged, and that was bent almost double. Hornblower found it irritating to have to take a bath in this fashion, although he tried not to allow it t　

Betty Zaneby Zane GreyTO THE BETTY ZANE CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHORNOTEIn a quiet corner of the stately little city of Wheeling, West Va., stands a monument on which is inscribed:"By authority of the State of West Virginia to commemorate the siege of Fort Henry, Sept 11, 1782, the last battle of the American Revolution, this tablet is here placed."Had it not been for the heroism of a girl the foregoing inscription would never have been written, and the city of Wheeling would never have existed. From time to time I have read short stories and magazine articles which have been published about Elizabeth Zane and her famous exploi　

Michael Strogoffby Jules VerneorThe Courier of the CzarMichael StrogoffBOOK ICHAPTER I A FETE AT THE NEW PALACE"SIRE, a fresh dispatch.""Whence?""From Tomsk?""Is the wire cut beyond that city?""Yes, sire, since yesterday.""Telegraph hourly to Tomsk, General, and keep me informedof all that occurs.""Sire, it shall be done," answered General Kissoff.These words were exchanged about two hours after midnight,at the moment when the fete given at the New Palace was atthe height of its splendor.During the whole evening the bands of the Preobra-jensky and Paulowskyregiments had played without cessation polkas, mazurkas, schottisches,...　

Saint George for Englandby G. A. HentyPREFACEMY DEAR LADS,You may be told perhaps that there is no good to be obtained from tales of fighting and bloodshed, - that there is no moral to be drawn from such histories. Believe it not. War has its lessons as well as Peace. You will learn from tales like this that determination and enthusiasm can accomplish marvels, that true courage is generally accompanied by magnanimity and gentleness, and that if not in itself the very highest of virtues, it is the parent of almost all the others, since but few of them can be practised without it. The courage of our forefathers has created the greatest empire in the world around a small and in itself insigni　

The Magic Skinby Honore de BalzacTranslated by Ellen MarriageTo Monsieur Savary, Member of Le Academie des Sciences.ITHE TALISMANTowards the end of the month of October 1829 a young man entered thePalais-Royal just as the gaming-houses opened, agreeably to the lawwhich protects a passion by its very nature easily excisable. Hemounted the staircase of one of the gambling hells distinguished bythe number 36, without too much deliberation."Your hat, sir, if you please?" a thin, querulous voice called out. Alittle old man, crouching in the darkness behind a railing, suddenlyrose and exhibited his features, carved after a mean design.As you enter a gaming-house the law despoils you of your hat a