Mrs. Falchion

"She was an example of splendid life. I cared to look at her as one would dwell on the sleek beauty of a deer -- as, indeed, I have many a time since then, in India, watched a tigress asleep on her chain, claws hidden, wild life latent but slumbering. I could have staked my life that Mrs. Falchion was insensible to love or passion, and unimpeachable in the broad scheme of right and wrong; imperious in requiring homage, incapable of giving it."

He took was on a long sea voyage and met a mysterious and beautiful woman . . . Mrs. Falchion.

Destination: adventure and romance

But is there a Mr. Falchion?

Yes.

And what will happen when he returns?

Sir Gilbert Parker is a star above the firmament of Canadian Literature. "Mrs. Falchion," his first novel, is in many ways a modern romance -- and something different from a romance, too. Here is a classic of Canadian literature from a man who made a name first with quasi-romantic fiction, and then in stories of the mercurial French Canadians.