The Silver Butterfly
Nancy Mann Waddel Woodrow, writing as Mrs. Wilson Woodrow, set this 1908 mystery romance in the moneyed social world of New York. Robert Hayden, a civil engineer newly home after years building railroads in South America, Africa, and China, notices a young woman in a green gown embroidered with silver butterflies during a night at the opera. When one of the small silver butterflies falls from her shoe into his hands, he treats it as his opening and sets out to find her, following a trail that winds through hidden identity and quiet danger. First serialized as “The Veiled Mariposa” and illustrated for book publication by Howard Chandler Christy, the story mixes drawing-room courtship with detective work, rewarding readers who like turn-of-the-century suspense built around a determined, romantic chase.
