VICTOR VICTORIOUS VICTOR VICTORIOUS BY CECIL STARR JOHNS BY CECIL STARR JOHNS LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXV LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXV THE ANCHOR PRESS, LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX, ENGLAND THE ANCHOR PRESS, LTD., TIPTREE, ESSEX, ENGLAND TO IRMA MY WIFE TO IRMA MY WIFE AUTHOR'S NOTE This book was written in the spring of 1913--fifteen months before the outbreak of the present war. 1913-- September, 1915. , 1915. VICTOR VICTORIOUS VICTOR VICTORIOUS CHAPTER I CHAPTER I It was a magnificent tree, old and stately; it was, moreover, the first cause of grief that I can remember. Its foliage in summer afforded much shade, and in the mornings when the sun was shining caused patterns to appear on the floor of my nursery; my sorrow was, that I could not fasten the pattern to the floor with tacks, tacks of the ordinary tin variety, which I had procured from goodness only knows where. I tried again and again, weeping