Wilton's Holiday
Wilton's Holiday is a short love story, first published in UK in The Strand Magazine in July 1915. In U.S. it was published under the title Wilton’s Vacation in Illustrated Sunday Magazine and in Minneapolis Tribune Sunday Magazine on 19 March 1916. It was also included in the collection The Man with Two Left Feet published in UK in 1917.
Plot Summary
Jack Wilton comes to Marvis Bay to spend his holidays. There he invents a story about his fiancée, Amy, dying on their wedding day to prevent local people from confiding in him and from bothering him with their sad stories and problems. Then he falls in love with another holiday maker, Mary Campbell, and he proposes to her but is refused by her on the grounds that memories of Amy will always be between them. When he tells her that he invented Amy, she decides to break with him for good but at the end they get together. (Narrated by a man from London; in US edition narrated by a man from New York.)
Main Characters
- Jack Wilton, a holiday maker in Marvis Bay
- Spencer Clay, a young man from Marvis Bay
- Ellerton, a young man from Marvis Bay (mentioned only)
- Mary Campbell, a holiday maker in Marvis Bay
- Grace Bates, a girl from Marvis Bay (mentioned only)
- Heloise Miller, a girl from Marvis Bay (mentioned only)
- Clarice Wembley, a girl from Marvis Bay (mentioned only)
- Amy, an imaginary fiancée of Jack Wilton (mentioned only)
- Teddy Bingley, a man from Marvis Bay (mentioned only)