Chapter I: Front Matter

[Frontispiece: FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN AS JOHN D. CURTIS. BEVERLY BAYNE AS LADY HERMIONE.]

ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT

A ROMANCE OF NEW YORK

BY

LOUIS TRACY

AUTHOR OF

MIRABEL'S ISLAND, THE WINGS OF THE MORNING, ETC.

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY

EDWARD J. CLODE

A FOREWORD

Moving picture enthusiasts who reveled in the romantic mysteries that tangled the plot of ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT will find even more pleasure in reading this fascinating story.

"THE LADIES' WORLD" contest--the greatest in the history of motion pictures--has just come to a close. Under the auspices of the "Ladies' World" with its million circulation monthly, moving picture lovers all over the United States have been voting for the actor to impersonate the heroic part of John Delancy Curtis in the photo-play of ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT--probably the most interesting and absorbing presentation ever made on the screen.

_Five million, four hundred and forty-thousand, seven-hundred and sixty votes were cast_. Francis Bushman won the prize. With a vote of 1,806,630 he was chosen the typical American hero. In the Essanay Company's elaborate production of ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT, Mr. Bushman is supported by a strong cast, including beautiful Beverly Bayne as Lady Hermione.

Those who have witnessed the photo-play production will find the book even more intensely interesting. The hero, John Delancy Curtis, drops in from Pekin, China, for a brief rest from strenuous engineering work, and on his first night in New York finds a marriage license in the pocket of a murdered man's coat, rushes off in a taxi to the address of the woman named therein, marries her, punches a frantic rival on the nose, flouts her father (an English baronet), takes the fair one to a hotel, holds a banquet at which the Chief of Police of New York is an honored guest, and sits down to gaze contentedly into the future of bliss that a half a million a year will bring.

We bespeak for the reader pleasure, entertainment and diversion in this absorbing and unusual story.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. DUSK
II. EIGHT O'CLOCK
III. EIGHT-THIRTY
IV. AN INTERLUDE
V. NINE O'CLOCK
VI. NINE-THIRTY
VII. TEN O'CLOCK
VIII. TEN-THIRTY
IX. ELEVEN O'CLOCK
X. MIDNIGHT
XI. ONE O'CLOCK
XII. TWO-THIRTY A.M.
XIII. WHEREIN LADY HERMIONE "ACTS FOR THE BEST"
XIV. THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING
XV. WHEREIN THE PACE SLACKENS--BUT ONLY FOR A FEW HOURS
XVI. A PARLEY
XVII. WHEREIN JOHN AND HERMIONE BECOME ORDINARY MEMBERS OF SOCIETY

ILLUSTRATIONS

FRANCIS X. BUSHMAN AS JOHN D. CURTIS. BEVERLY BAYNE
AS LADY HERMIONE . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

Scenes from the photo-drama

Scenes from the photo-drama

Scenes from the photo-drama

ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT