ELEANOR HALLOWELL ABBOTT Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (1872-1958) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The daughter of clergyman Edward Abbott and granddaughter of well-known children, s author Jacob Abbott, she grew up in a religious and scholarly environment. After studying at Radcliffe, she worked as a secretary and a teacher at Lowell State Normal School. She began writing poems and short stories for publication shortly thereafter. In 1908 she married Dr. Fordyce Coburn and moved to Wilton, New Hampshire. Here she met her first literary successes, with sales to such prominent magazines of the day as Harper's, Collier's, and The Delineator. She soon received national recognition, going on to publish fourteen books and more than seventy-five short stories. Her romantic fiction focused primarily on young women and was described as charming by readers of the day. Her work was most popular in the 1910s and 1920s. This volume collects two of her shorter works: The Indiscreet Letter and Little Eve Edgarton, which are typical of her style and range

The White Linen Nurse was so tired that her noble expression ached. Incidentally her head ached and her shoulders ached and her lungs ached and the ankle-bones of both feet ached quite excruciatingly. But nothing of her felt permanently incapaci-tate

But you live like such a fool-of course you're bored! drawled the Older Man, rummaging listlessly through his pockets for the ever-elusive match. "Well, I like your nerve!" protested the Younger Man with unmistakable asperity. "Do you-really?" m