Beadle's Dime Library No. 570

This 1889 pulp serial by Albert W. Aiken, titled "The Romance of an Implacable Mission," opens at Niblo's Garden theater in New York during a dress rehearsal for the French drama "Logadere." Producers, the Bolosso Brothers, prepare their spectacular production for a small audience of critics and friends. Leading actor James Mortimer, playing the hero Logadere, is interrupted by a mysterious woman named Hilda Serene who arrives at the stage door. She claims to have worked with him years earlier in Colorado, playing Blanche de Caylus in "The Duke's Motto." Now destitute after her theater company collapsed, she seeks employment. Mortimer sympathetically promises to speak with the stage-manager about securing her a position, though none are currently available. The narrative establishes romantic tension and hints at larger mysteries surrounding both characters and their shared theatrical past.