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Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.netTHE MISTRESS OF SHENSTONEBy Florence L. BarclayAuthor Of The Rosary, Etc.Grosset & Dunlap Publishers :: New YorkCopyright, 1910 BY FLORENCE L. BARCLAYThe Rosary The Following of the Star The Mistress of Sh...
But, outside, the dead leaves turned slowly, and rustled on the grass; while the soft "drip, drip" of autumn fell all around. The dying year was almost dead; and nature waited for her pall of snow.CHAPTER IITHE FORERUNNER"What it is to have somebody to talk to, at last! And _you_, of all people, dear Doctor! Though I s...
"Peter!" said the doctor, suddenly.Peter sat up at once, and peeped at the doctor, through his curls."Poor little Peter," said the doctor, kindly.Peter moved to the edge of the chair; sat very upright, and looked eagerly across to where the doctor was sitting. Then he wagged his tail, tapping the chair with quick, anxi...
"Now tell me," said the doctor, gently. "Why did you leave town, your many friends, your interests there, in order to bury yourself down here, during this dismal autumn weather? Surely the strain of waiting for news would have been less, within such easy reach of the War Office and of the evening papers."Lady Ingleby l...
"I was the black sheep," continued Myra, finding no remark forthcoming. "Nothing I did was ever right; everything I did was always wrong. When Michael met me I was nearly eighteen, the height I am now, but in the nursery, as regards mental development or knowledge of the world; and, as regards character, a most unhappy...
Lady Ingleby noticed his intent gaze, and, leaning forward, also looked up at the picture. The firelight shone on her lovely face, and on the gleaming softness of her hair. Her lips parted in a tender smile; a pure radiance shone from her eyes."Ah, he _is_ so good!" she said. "In all the years, he has never once spoken...
Before long she was quietly asleep. The doctor stood looking down upon her. There was tragedy to him in this perfect loveliness. Now the clear candour of the grey eyes was veiled, the childlike look was no longer there. It was the face of a woman--and of a woman who had lived, and who had suffered.Watching it, the doct...
Jane looked up, and saw the doctor standing at the top of the stairs; something wrapped in an old coat, held carefully in his arms. She threw him one smile of greeting and assurance; then, wasting no time in words, rapidly pulled off her coat, hat, and fur gloves, flinging them in quick succession to the astonished but...
Time went on. The frontier war was over. England, as ever, had been bound to win in the end; and England had won. It had merely been a case of time; of learning wisdom by a series of initial mistakes; of expending a large amount of British gold and British blood. England's supremacy was satisfactorily asserted; and, th...
This was the doctor's verdict and prescription; and, as his patients never disputed the one, or declined to take the other, Myra found herself, on "the glorious first of June" flying south in the Great Western express, bound for the little fishing village of Tregarth where she had ordered rooms at the Moorhead Inn, in ...
Stray travellers come and go in motors, merely lunching, or putting up for one night; but there are only four other permanent guests. These all furnish me with unceasing interest and amusement. The three Miss Murgatroyds--oh, Jane, they are so antediluvian and quaint! Three ancient sisters,--by name, Amelia, Eliza, and...
Do you know, it was so strange, the other night, Miss Murgatroyd held forth in the reception-room about Michael's death. She explained that he was "the first to dash into the breach," and "fell with his face to the foe." She also added that she used to know "poor dear Lady Ingleby," intimately. This was interesting, an...
Garth insists upon sending you at once a selection of his favourites from among the works of Dickens. So expect a bulky package before long. You might read them aloud to the Miss Murgatroyds, while they knit and wind wool.Garth thoroughly enjoyed our trip to America. You know why we went? Since he lost his sight, all s...
Myra walked to the centre of the horseshoe; then, picking up a piece of driftwood, scooped out a comfortable hollow in the sand, about a dozen yards from the foot of the cliff; stuck her open parasol up behind it, to shield herself from the observation, from above, of any chance passer-by; and, settling comfortably int...
Suddenly he paused. "Show me your reach," he said. "Mine would not do. Put your left hand there; so. Now stretch up with your right; as high as you can, easily.... Ah! three foot six, or thereabouts. Now your left foot close to the bottom. Step up with your right, as high as you can comfortably.... Two foot, nine. Good...
"One step more," said Jim Airth's voice, close to her ear, "and I can lift you."She made the effort, and he drew her on to the ledge beside him."Thank you very much," said Lady Ingleby. "And who was Davy Jones?"Jim Airth's face was streaming with perspiration. His mouth was full of sand. His heart was beating in his th...
"Yes," replied Jim Airth, deliberately. "Seven o'clock, on the first of June. I stood at the smoking-room window, at a loose end of all things; sick of myself, dissatisfied with my manuscript, tired of fried fish--don't laugh; small things, as well as great, go to make up the sum of a man's depression. Then the gate sw...
"I divorced her, of course; and he married her; but I went abroad, and stayed abroad. I never could look upon her as other than my wife. She had made a hell of my life; robbed me of every illusion; wrecked my ideals; imbittered my youth. But I had said, before God, that I took her for my wife, until death parted us; an...
And, as she listened, her heart said: "Oh, my cosmopolitan cowboy! Thank God you found no title in the book, to put you off. Thank God you found no name which you could 'place,' relegating its poor possessor to the ranks of 'society leaders' in which you would have had no share. And, oh! most of all, I thank God for th...
Then she gently withdrew one hand, and laid it on the hand which had covered both."Jim," she said. "Jim! Look! It is day.""Yes?" came Jim Airth's voice from behind her. "Yes? _What?_ COME IN!--Hullo! Oh, I say!"Myra smiled into the dawning. She had already come through those first moments of astonished realisation. But...
The week which followed was one of ideal joy and holiday. Both knew, instinctively, that no after days could ever be quite as these first days. They were an experience which came not again, and must be realised and enjoyed with whole-hearted completeness.At first Jim Airth talked with determination of a special licence...
Jim Airth's big bass boomed through the little church; and Myra, close to his shoulder, sang with a face so radiant that none could doubt the reality of her praise.Then back to a cold supper at the Moorhead Inn; after which they strolled out to the honeysuckle arbour for Jim's evening pipe, and a last quiet talk.It was...
"Jim," she whispered, "it is _so_ silly to say: '_If_ you had really cared'; because you know, perfectly well, that I care for you, more than any woman in the world has ever cared for any man before! And I do assure you, Jim, that you couldn't have married me _validly_ from here--and think how awful it would be, to lov...
Left alone, Jim Airth commenced taking rapid note of the room, hoping to gain therefrom some ideas as to the tastes and character of its possessor. But almost immediately his attention was arrested by a life-size portrait of Lord Ingleby, hanging above the mantelpiece.Jim Airth walked over to the hearthrug, and stood l...
"I guess I'd take her out to my ranch and teach her to milk cows," laughed Jim Airth. Then turning about under the tree and looking in all directions: "But seriously, Myra, where is Lady Ingleby? She should keep her appointments. We cannot waste our whole afternoon waiting here. I want my girl; and I want her in her ow...
"Now you will understand why I felt I could not marry you validly in Cornwall; and I wanted--was it selfish?--I wanted the joy of revealing my own identity when I had you, at last, in my own beautiful home. Oh, my dear--my dear! Cannot our love stand the test of so light a thing as this?"She ceased speaking and waited....
Myra pondered, wept, and reasoned round in a circle, growing more and more bewildered and perplexed.But by-and-by she went indoors and tried to remove all traces of recent tears. She must not let her sorrow make her selfish. Ronald and Billy would be wanting tea, and expecting her to join them.* * * *...
"Yes, Billy," she said. "You may as well tell me."The room was very still. A rosebud tapped twice against the window-pane. It might have been a warning finger. Neither noticed it. It tapped a third time.Billy cleared his throat, and swallowed, quickly.Then he spoke."The man who made the blunder," he said, "and fired th...
"Dearest," she said, "I will never ask you to do, for my sake, anything you feel impossible or wrong. But, oh, in this, I know you are mistaken. I cannot argue or explain. I cannot put my reasons into words. But I _know_ our living, longing, love _ought_ to come before the happenings of a dead past. Michael lost his li...
"Then that settles it," she said; "and, do you know, I think we had better not speak of it any more. I am going to ring for tea. And, if you will excuse me for a few moments, while they are bringing it, I will search among my husband's papers, and try to find those you require for your book."She passed swiftly out. Thr...
He walked down to Shenstone by night; sat, in bitterness of spirit under the beeches, surrounded by empty wicker chairs;--a silent ghostly garden-party!--watched the dawn break over the lake; prowled around the house where Lady Ingleby lay sleeping, and narrowly escaped arrest at the hands of Lady Ingleby's night-watch...
At that moment they heard the sharp ting of a bicycle bell. A boy had ridden up with a telegram. Groatley, waiting to see them off, took it; picked up a silver salver from the hall table, and followed Lady Ingleby to her sitting-room.There seemed so sudden a silence in the house, that Ronald and Billy with one accord s...
But there should be no background of anything but perfect joy, when Myra was his wife. Would he not have the turning of the fair leaves of her book of life? Each page should unfold fresh happiness, hold new surprises as to what life and love could mean. He would know how to guard her from the faintest shadow of disillu...
"I am not ill, Jim; really dear, I am not. I am only strangely happy and thankful. It seems too wonderful for our poor earthly hearts to understand. And I am a little frightened about the future--but you will help me to face that, I know. And I am rather worried about little things I have done wrong. It seems foolish--...
"So _this_ is your love," she said. "This is what it means? Then I thank God I have hitherto only known the 'cold travesty,' which at least has kept me pure, and held me high. What? Would you drag _me_ down to the level of the woman you have scorned for a dozen years? And, dragging me down, would you also trail, with m...
"I am bound to tell you at once, dear Lady Ingleby," he said, "that you have been cruelly deceived. The message from Cairo was a heartless fraud, designed in order to obtain money. Billy Cathcart had reason to suspect its genuineness, and brought it to me. I cabled at once to Cairo, with this result."He laid two telegr...
"Jane, you are so strong-minded," murmured Lady Ingleby. "It goes with your linen collars, your tailor-made coats, and your big boots. I cannot picture myself in a linen collar, nor can I conceive of myself as standing before Michael and informing him that I loved Jim!"Jane Dalmain laughed good-humouredly, plunged her ...
"Myra," she said, "you are absolutely right in your definitions, and correct in your conclusions. But your mistake is this. You make no allowance for the sudden, desperate, overwhelming nature of the temptation before which Jim Airth fell. Remember all that led up to it. Think of it, Myra! He stood so alone in the worl...
"Ah, my dear, my dear!" said Mrs. Dalmain, tenderly. "You need to learn a lesson about married life. True happiness does not come from marrying an idol throned on a pedestal. Before Galatea could wed Pygmalion, she had to change from marble into glowing flesh and blood, and step down from off her pedestal. Love should ...
"Jim," she said, "understanding fully, of course I forgive fully, if it is possible that between you and me, forgiveness should pass. I have been thinking it over, since I knew you were in the house, and wondering why I feel it so impossible to say, 'I forgive you.' And, Jim--I think it is because you and I are so _one...
"Yes, dear. Oh, I hope the Murgatroyds are still here. Let's look in the book.... Yes, see! Here are their names with date of arrival, but none of departure. And, oh, dearest, here is 'Jim Airth,' as I first saw it written; and look at 'Mrs. O'Mara' just beneath it! How well I remember glancing back from the turn of th...
Produced by Daniel Fromont. HTML version by Al Haines.COLLECTION OF BRITISH AUTHORSTAUCHNITZ EDITION.VOL. 1809.VIXEN BY M. E. BRADDON IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I.TAUCHNITZ EDITION.VIXENA NOVELBYM. E. BRADDON,AUTHOR OF "LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET," ETC. ETC._COPYRIGHT EDITION_.IN THREE VOLUMES.VOL. I.By the same Author...
"And you're over due at Oxford, too, aren't you?" cried Vixen, laughing; "you're always due somewhere--never in the right place. But whether you are due or not, you're coming up to the stables with me to give Titmouse his apples, and then you're coming to dine with us on your last night at home. I insist upon it; papa ...
"This is very nice, you know, Vixen," said Roderick critically, as Titmouse made a greedy snap at an apple, and was repulsed with a gentle pat on his nose, "but it can't go on for ever. What'll you do when you are grown up?""Have a horse instead of a pony," answered Vixen unhesitatingly."And will that be all the differ...
The oak panelling was painted white, a barbarity on the part of those modern Goths the West End decorators, but a charming background for quaint Venetian mirrors, hanging shelves of curious old china, dainty little groups of richly-bound duodecimos, brackets, bronzes, freshest flowers in majolica jars; water-colour ske...
It was a delightful room on a chill October evening like this: the logs roaring up the wide chimney, a pair of bronze candelabra lighting buffet and table, Mrs. Tempest smiling pleasantly at her unbidden guest, and the squire stooping, red-faced and plethoric, over his mulligatawny; while Vixen, who was at an age when ...
"It is not dogs only that are jealous!" thought Roderick, as he went home in the brougham, with all the windows down, and the cool night breeze blowing his cigar smoke away into the forest, to mix with the mist wreaths that were curling up from the soft ground. It was an offence of the highest grade to smoke in his mot...
He was romantic, chivalrous, aspiring, and Lady Jane Umleigh was the first woman he had met who embodied the heroine of his youthful dreams. He proposed and was refused, and went away despairing. It would have been a good match, undoubtedly--a truth which Lord and Lady Lodway urged with some iteration upon their daught...
When the boy was old enough to go to Eton, he seemed still more remote from his mother's love and sympathy. He was passionately fond of field sports, and those Lady Jane Vawdrey detested. He was backwards in all his studies, despite the careful coaching he had received from the mild Anglican curate of Briarwood village...
"I don't know whom you mean by horrid people, Mabel," answered Rorie, chilled back into sulkiness all at once; "the people I was with are all that is good and pleasant.""Then you've not been at the Tempests' after all?""I have been at the Tempests'. What have you to say against the Tempests?""Oh, I have nothing to say ...
This is how Squire Tempest greeted the family doctor's announcement of the his baby's sex. He had been particularly anxious for a son to inherit the Abbey House estate, succeed to his father's dignities as master of the fox-hounds, and in a general way sustain the pride and glory of the family name; and, behold! Provid...
Even the long vacation came without Rorie. He had gone for that promised tour in Switzerland, at his mother's instigation, and was only to come back late in the year to keep his twenty-first birthday, which was to be honoured in a very subdued and unhilarious fashion at Briarwood."Mamma," said Violet, at breakfast-time...
Miss McCroke had gone to her room to write letters, or Vixen would have hardly been allowed to remain peacefully in such an inelegant position, her knees drawn up to her chin, her arms embracing her legs, her back against the stout oak shutter. Yet the girl and dog made rather a pretty picture, despite the inelegance o...
Mr. Vawdrey indulged in a suppressed yawn."My mother would like it," he said, "but upon my word I don't care about it. I don't take enough interest in my fellow-creatures.""If they were foxes, you'd be anxious to legislate for them," suggested Vixen."I would certainly try to protect them from indiscriminate slaughter. ...
Rorie looked at the bright face admiringly. The shadows had deepened; there was no light in the great oak-panelled room except the ruddy fire-glow, and in this light Violet Tempest looked her loveliest. The figures in the tapestry seemed to move in the flickering light--appeared and vanished, vanished and appeared, lik...
"No, I didn't. I stopped halfway between here and Lyndhurst to see some old friends.""Flattering for my aunt," said Mabel. "I should have thought she was your oldest friend.""Of course she has the prior claim. But as I was going to hand myself over to her bodily at seven o'clock, to be speechified about and rendered ge...
A glance at these arrangements would have told you that there were old servants at the Abbey House, servants who knew their master's and mistress's ways, and for whom service was more or less a labour of love."How nice," said the lady, with a contented sigh. "Pauline has thought of my cup of tea.""And Forbes has not fo...
"So I am told," replied Mrs. Tempest. "It will be a splendid match for him."The pretty chestnut head dropped back into its old place upon the Squire's shoulder, and Violet answered never a word."Past two o'clock," cried her mother. "This is really too dreadful. Come, Violet, you and I must go upstairs at any rate.""We'...
Rorie found the Duke going the round of the loose-boxes, and uncle and nephew spent an hour together pleasantly, overhauling the fine stud of hunters which the Duke kept at Ashbourne, and going round the paddocks to look at the brood-mares and their foals; these latter being eccentric little animals, all head and legs,...
"If I had only had a son like you, Rorie," he said, as he stood beside the young man, on the gravel sweep before the hall-door, welcoming the new-comers, "I should have been a happy man. Well, I suppose I must be satisfied with a grandson; but it's a hard thing that the title and estates are to go to that scamp of a co...
They rode on in silence for a little while after this. Vixen was longing to say: "Rorie, you have treated me very badly. You ought to have told me you were going to be married." But something restrained her. She patted her horse's neck, listened to the lonely robins, and said not a word. The Squire and his tenant were ...
"I was lucky enough to meet this gentleman," he said, "a doctor from Southampton, who was at the hunt to-day. Violet dear, will you let me take you home now, and leave the doctor and Mr. Wimble with your father?""No," answered Vixen decisively.The strange doctor knelt down and looked at his patient. He was a middle-age...
"Do, like a dear," said Rorie.He paced the room while she was gone, full of sadness. He had been very fond of the Squire, and that awfully sudden death, an apopleptic seizure, instantaneous as a thunderbolt, had impressed him very painfully. It was his first experience of the kind, and it was infinitely terrible to him...
"An example, a model, a paragon, a perfect woman nobly planned, &c. Be anything but that, Vixen, if you love me.""I don't think there is much fear of any of us being perfect," said Miss McCroke severely. "Imperfection is more in the line of humanity.""Do you think so?" interrogated Rorie. "I find there is a great deal ...
"Well, I fear we should find Addison a little thin," said Captain Winstanley; "I can't imagine London society existing for a week on such literary pabulum as 'The Vision of Mirza.' We want something stronger than that. A little scandal about our neighbours, a racy article on field sports, some sharpish hits at the City...
"That French _grande dame_ was right," thought Mrs. Tempest, "who said, '_Le noir est si flattant pour les blondes_.'"Black was flattering for Vixen's auburn hair also. Though her indifferent eye rarely glanced at the mirrored walls, she had never looked lovelier. A tall graceful figure, in billowy black tulle, wreathe...
"You are all that is lovely," he exclaimed passionately, stung by her scorn and fired by her beauty, almost beside himself as they stood there in the magical moonlight--for once in his life forgetting to calculate every move on life's chessboard. "You are too lovely for me. From the very first, in Switzerland, when I w...
"No; but it seems so long. I hardly expect to see any of the old faces. He is not here," with a sudden choking sob. "Why should all be left--except him?""The workings of Providence are full of mystery," sighed the widow. "Dear Edward! How handsome he looked that day he brought me home. And he was a noble-looking man to...
The thought of his coming thrilled her with a new joy. She seemed to have been living an artificial life in the two years of her absence, to have been changed in her very self by change of surroundings. It was almost as if the old Vixen had been sent into an enchanted sleep, while some other young lady, a model of prop...
Ten minutes later Vixen went down to the drawing-room, looking very stately in her black Irish poplin, whose heavy folds became the tall full figure, and whose dense blackness set off the ivory skin and warm auburn hair. She had given just one passing glance at herself in the cheval-glass, and Vanity had whispered:"Per...
"He has altered his mind since then, I conclude," said Mr. Scobel cheerily--those binoculars of his could never have seen through a stone-wall, and were not much good at seeing things under his nose--"for it is quite a settled thing that Mr. Vawdrey and Lady Mabel are to be married. It will be a splendid match for him,...
"My dear Violet," cried the widow, "after going to that ball at Brighton, we could not possibly decline invitations here. It would be an insult to our friends. If we had not gone to the ball----""We ought not to have gone," exclaimed Vixen."My love, you should have said so at the time.""Mamma, you know I was strongly a...
"How do you do?" she said, as stiffly as a child brought down to the drawing-room, bristling in newly-brushed hair and a best frock, and then turning to her mother, she asked curtly: "What did you want with me, mamma?""It was Captain Winstanley who asked to see you, my dear. Won't you have some tea?""Thanks, no," said ...
"And not have a brass bedstead, a spring mattress, a moderator lamp, or a coal-scuttle in your house," said the captain. "My dear madam, it is all very well to be mediaeval in matters ecclesiastic, but home comforts must not be sacrificed in the pursuit of the aesthetic, or a modern luxury discarded because it looks li...
"I suppose, according to the nature of such things, it was all right and proper," Vixen answered coldly; "but I should think it must have been intensely painful to you, mamma."Mrs. Tempest sighed. She had always a large selection of sighs in stock, suitable to every occasion."I should have felt it much worse if I had s...
Captain Winstanley took up his quarters at Beechdale Cottage in less than a week after Mrs. Tempest's dinner-party. He sent for his horses, and began the business of hunting in real earnest. His two hunters were unanimously pronounced screws; but it is astonishing how well a good rider can get across country on a horse...
"Do you think Lady Ellangowan's wing will make any difference--in me?" inquired Vixen."It will make a great deal of difference in the Southminster set," replied Mrs. Scobel, who considered herself an authority upon all social matters.She was a busy good-natured little woman, the chosen confidante of all her female frie...
The Captain had lost no time in exacting his waltz. It was the third on the programme, and the band were beginning to warm to their work. They were playing a waltz by Offenbach--"_Les Traîneaux_"--with an accompaniment of jingling sleigh-bells--music that had an almost maddening effect on spirits already exhilarated.Th...
"This is all very well for the wallflowers," said Captain Winstanley to Violet, "but you and I are losing our dances.""I don't much care about dancing," answered Vixen wearily.She had been looking at this gorgeous display of bracelets and teacups, silver-gilt dressing-cases, and ivory hairbrushes, without seeing anythi...
There was only a subdued light, from lamps thinly sprinkled among the ferns and flowers. There were four large groups of statuary, placed judiciously, and under the central dome there was a fountain, where, half hidden by a veil of glittering spray, Neptune was wooing Tyro, under the aspect of a river-god, amongst bulr...
"I'm afraid your dress has suffered," said her partner."Not in the least." protested Mrs. Scobel, with the fortitude of that ladylike martyr to a clumsy carver, celebrated by Sydney Smith, who, splashed from head to foot, and with rills of brown gravy trickling down her countenance, vowed that not a drop had reached he...
Violet had arranged to drive Mr. and Mrs. Scobel in her pony-carriage. She was at the door of their snug little Vicarage at three o'clock; the vivacious Titmouse tossing his head and jingling his bit in a burst of pettishness at the aggravating behaviour of the flies.Mrs. Scobel came fluttering out, with the Vicar behi...
Violet had never been happier since her return to Hampshire than she felt that sunny afternoon, as she moved quickly about, ministering to these juvenile devourers. The sight of their somewhat bovine contentment took her thoughts away from her own cares and losses; and presently, when the banquet was concluded--a concl...
"Shall we walk up the hill together?" Roderick asked Violet humbly, "while the Scobels follow with their flock?""I am going to drive Mr. and Mrs. Scobel," replied Vixen curtly."But where is your carriage?""I don t know. I rather think it was to meet us at the top of the hill.""Then let us go up together and find it--un...
By-and-by they came to the gate of an enclosure which covered a large extent of ground, and through which there was a near way to Beechdale and the Abbey House. They walked along a grassy track through a plantation of young pines--a track which led them down into a green and mossy bottom, where the trees were old and b...
Produced by Daniel Fromont. HTML version by Al Haines.COLLECTIONOFBRITISH AUTHORSTAUCHNITZ EDITION.VOL. 1811.VIXEN BY M. E. BRADDONIN THREE VOLUMES.VOL. III.VIXENA NOVELBYM. E. BRADDON,AUTHOR OF "LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET," ETC. ETC._COPYRIGHT EDITION_.IN THREE VOLUMES.VOL. III.LEIPZIGBERNHARD TAUCHNITZ1879._The Right of ...
Vixen felt herself conquered. She had stated her wish, and it was granted; not in the mode and manner she had desired; but perhaps she ought to be grateful for release from a home that had become loathsome to her, and not take objection to details in the scheme of her exile. To go away, quite away, and immediately, was...
"I will come at once," said Vixen.Mrs. Winstanley was lying on a sofa near an open window, the Spanish blinds lowered to exclude the afternoon sunshine, the perfume of the gardens floating in upon the soft summer air. A tiny teapot and cup and saucer on a Japanese tray showed that the invalid had been luxuriating in he...
"You are very generous, dear; but Theodore would not wait so long, even for me. Be sure you take plenty of wraps for the steamer. Summer nights are often chilly."Vixen thought of last night, and the long straight ride through the pine wood, the soft scented air, the young moon shining down at her, and Rorie by her side...
"I think he thought lightly of me because of all our foolishness when he was a boy," mused Vixen. "I seemed to him less than other women--because of those old sweet memories--instead of more."It was a dreary voyage for Violet Tempest--a kind of maritime purgatory. The monotonous thud of the engine, the tramping of feet...
"No," answered Vixen; "they are too preposterous to be met with in a civilised country. Poor Charles the Second! I don't wonder that he was wild and riotous when he came to be king.""Why not?""Because he had spent several months of exile among his loyal subjects in Jersey. A man who had been buried alive in such a frag...
"You are fanciful," said the Captain. "The house has no story except the common history of fallen fortunes. It has been in the Skipwith family ever since it was built. They were Leicestershire people, and came to Jersey after the civil war--came here to be near their prince in his exile--settled here and built Les Tour...
The shelves and drawers were neatly lined with white paper, and strewed with dried lavender. This was luxury which Vixen had not expected. She laid her pretty dresses on the shelves, smiling scornfully as she looked at them. Of what use could pretty dresses be in a desert island? And here were her riding-habit and her ...
"Would a small idea be worth the devotion of a life? For thirty years I have devoted myself to this one scheme. I have striven to focus all the creeds of mankind in one brilliant centre--eliminating all that is base and superstitious in each several religion, crystallising all that is good and true. The Buddhist, the B...
It was a pretty little island, after all; Vixen was fain to admit as much. There was some justification for the people who sang its praises with such enthusiasm. One might have fancied it a fertile corner of Devonshire that had slipped its moorings and drifted westward on a summer sea."If I had Arion here, and--Rorie, ...
Violet was gone. Her rooms were empty; her faithful little waiting-maid was dismissed; her dog's deep-toned thunder no longer sounded through the house, baying joyous welcome when his mistress came down for her early morning ramble in the shrubberies. Arion had been sent to grass, and was running wild in fertile pastur...
Now, under the Captain's rule, she had the pleasure of seeing her name honourably recorded in the subscription list of every local charity: but her hand was no longer open to the surrounding poor, her good old Saxon name of Lady had lost its ancient significance. She was no longer the giver of bread to the hungry. She ...
"I am sure I would sacrifice anything rather than live unhappily with you, Conrad," Mrs. Winstanley murmured piteously, drinking much strong tea in her agitation, the cup shaking in her poor little white weak hand. "Nothing could be so dreadful to me as to live on bad terms with you. I have surrendered so much for your...
Captain Winstanley never again alluded to the dressmaker's bill. He was too wise a man to reopen old wounds or to dwell upon small vexations. He had invested every penny that he could spare, leaving the smallest balance at his banker's compatible with respectability. He had to sell some railway shares in order to pay M...
"It had no more foundation than many other assertions of that young lady's," he said. "I may have paid her compliments, and praised her beauty; but how could I think of her for a wife, when you were by? Your soft confiding nature conquered me before I knew that I was hit."He got up and went over to his wife and kissed ...