A bit of rough road

The young girl who spoke rose from her seat by the window and came towards a stout old lady, who was carrying on an animated conversation with two or three of her Sunday visitors.

MRS. DAUBENEY'S house was at the end of the street leading to the cathedral. The oak door with the massive brass knocker, the mullioned windows, and gigantic wistaria which cove...

"It's a day of rest," she would say to her niece; "and if I am given the opportunity, I shall take advantage of it. Church is too fatiguing at my age."

GEORGE ADAIR did come to lunch, and took Hope off to golf in the afternoon. She was polite and distant with him, but he would not take the hint, and before the afternoon was ove...

"Yes," said Hope gravely, "but he is ill. Brian has been telling me that the doctor fears that there is some pressure on the brain. He says the only chance is for him to have pe...

HOPE was very tired when she reached Kayminster. She arrived at the station about four o'clock in the afternoon, and was a little disappointed to find no one there to meet her....

IT was quite a week before Hope grasped the reins of home government, and as she feared, she made many mistakes. If she taught Anne a few lessons in method and cleanliness, Anne...

"I was camping out by myself by the river; there was only one bit of beach just where I was. On the opposite side were straight cliffs over a hundred feet in height. And one day...

Hope was sitting out in the garden reading the "Times" to Mr. St. Clair. She was delighted to see her father welcome his visitor with more warmth of manner than he had ever show...

"YOU will excuse my coming at this hour of the morning, but I am on my way home from the station, where I have been seeing mother off to town. And I want you to come back and sp...

"He is excited about your going away. I thought he looked very flushed at supper-time. Yes, I dare say I shall manage. I ought to be able to. Will you see Aunt Gertrude in town,...

THE next morning she and Brian held a serious consultation together. Brian had been bitterly disappointed that all Mrs. Daubeney's money would pass to her husband's nephew. Look...

HOPE went out the next morning to make a few purchases at the village shop. Coming home she passed a wooden gate in the lane, upon which a red-haired girl sat, swinging her heel...

HOPE was not without visitors, even at King's Dell. Mrs. Dane came to see her very often, and always brought flowers and fruit for the invalid. Hope enjoyed her visits immensely...

"I'm not quite a fool," he said; "I knew we should not keep you long, only I thought that London chap was to be the happy man. Does he want to take you out to India with him?"

TO Hope, the brief time she had had with Lancelot before he sailed, now seemed like a dream. But she could write to him; she had some one to whom she could unbosom herself, and...

STILL the water mounted. Would Brian never come, and would the night never end? After a time, Hope began to fear lest something had happened to her brother. She eyed the window...

Lancelot told her that he had just been appointed to another district. It was only a temporary appointment, to take the place of a man who had been granted a year's sick-leave,...

MR. MANNERS paid Brian the two hundred pounds, and took possession of the cottage. Hope thought it was all strangely pathetic. He looked like a fish out of water in his surround...

"I have come," Avice said hesitatingly, "because my father thought I ought. I have not seen you since we heard about Kitty. I could hardly believe it, but as it has come to noth...

Hope felt a little nervous as she mounted the carpeted stairs. It was a lodging-house, but a very superior one; and when she was ushered into the big front drawing-room, with a...

"'MY DEAR MISS ST. CLAIR,—You ought never to have left me. I can't think why you have been worrying yourself over the poultry-woman. I note what you say about my sister, Mrs. Ha...

LANCELOT'S letter was written from a sick bed. He had had a bad attack of fever, and had been unable to write. He was in great concern over Hope, and told her that circumstances...

"Oh," she said, with a sob in her throat, "I have longed for you so! I really believe I have longed as much for you as for Lancelot; only don't tell him so. I feel as if I am tw...

First she thought she was in bed, just waking up, and for a moment she began to wonder where she was. Then she was conscious of voices, and then of some one touching her. She op...

loved, quietly taking the second place in his thoughts and affections, and now she was as ready to give him up to the Master who loved him, and was calling him.

IT was an exquisite summer afternoon. Brunsworthy Hall lay bathed in the still golden sunshine. It was a substantial old brown stone building, with creeper-clad walls. In front...

She met them at the station herself, and was struck by the change in both of them. Kitty had lost her childish look; she was slighter in figure and taller, was as impetuous and...

AVICE and Kitty were soon comfortably settled in the farm, and Avice was fast regaining her health and spirits. But, as Kitty said, there was a change in her. She was gentler, m...