If Only Etc‪.‬

Jack Chetwynd believes a man is scarcely free even when he chooses a wife. Then he sees Bella Blackall, a seventeen-year-old music-hall singer, and falls in love at first sight.

In London, young surgeon Jack is captivated by Bella’s beauty, lively charm and the refinement he imagines beneath her music-hall life. He sees in her a future actress—or, better still, the happy, gentle wife he hopes to make of her. Bella, meanwhile, seems content to leave the stage for a quiet home, though her family and their noisy circle are already a source of unease to Jack. He risks his secure hospital post, spends beyond his means to furnish their house, and marries the girl he adores. But can love bridge the distance between the woman Bella is and the wife Jack expects?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.