THE GREEN MOUSE

By

ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR BY

EDMUND FREDERICK

1910

TO

MY FRIEND

JOHN CORBIN

Folly and Wisdom, Heavenly twins,
  Sons of the god Imagination,
Heirs of the Virtues--which were Sins
  Till Transcendental Contemplation
Transmogrified their outer skins--
  Friend, do you follow me? For I
  Have lost myself, I don't know why.

Resuming, then, this erudite
  And decorative Dedication,--
Accept it, John, with all your might
  In Cinquecentic resignation.
You may not understand it, quite,
  But if you've followed me all through,
  You've done far more than I could do.

PREFACE

To the literary, literal, and scientific mind purposeless fiction isabhorrent. Fortunately we all are literally and scientifically inclined;the doom of purposeless fiction is sounded; and it is a great comfort tobelieve that, in the near future, only literary and scientific workssuitable for man, woman, child, and suffragette, are to adorn thelingerie-laden counters in our great department shops.

It is, then, with animation and confidence that the author politelyoffers to a regenerated nation this modern, moral, literary, and highlyscientific work, thinly but ineffectually disguised as fiction, indeference to the prejudices of a few old-fashioned story-readers whostill survive among us.

R. W. C.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. An Idyl of the Idle
II. The Idler
III. The Green Mouse
IV. An Ideal Idol
V. Sacharissa
VI. In Wrong
VII. The Invisible Wire
...