A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus

MY OWN DEAREST GIRLIE,—How perfectly sweet you are! I read and re-read your letter, and I understand more and more how infinitely your nature is above mine. And your conception...

‘Yes, I have thought of one other,’ said she. ‘It is that if ever you had to find fault with me about anything, it should be when we are alone.’

Mrs. Watson, Frank’s trusty housekeeper, had been left in charge of The Lindens, and he had sent her a telegram the evening before to tell her that they were coming. She had alr...

The visitor made no effort to sustain the conversation, but leaned back in her chair and stared at her hostess with a very critical and searching glance. Those two questioning d...

Now I’ll give you your orders for the day, and don’t you forget them. To-morrow (Thursday, 14th, no excuses about the date) you will leave your office at 3.30. I know that you c...

‘Well, Gordon, perhaps. But our Nelsons and Napiers and Havelocks—to think that we could do no better than that for them! Now, dear, we have seen the man—let us look at the house!’

FRANK CROSSE had only been married some months when he first had occasion to suspect that his wife had some secret sorrow. There was a sadness and depression about her at times,...

‘Well, you must bear in mind, dear, that he could read it himself. Besides he was a fellow with a singularly methodical side to his mind. He was, for example, continually adding...

‘_Au revoir_, then.’ Frank ran all the way home, and burst in upon his wife. ‘It is not so very bad, dear—only fifty pounds.’ They danced about in their joy like two children.

‘But why read what cannot instruct or elevate us. Let us begin this next stanza, and hope for something better. The first line is—I wonder if it really can be as it is written.’

DEAR MAUDE,—All the little two-oared boats which put out into the great ocean have need of some chart which will show them how to lay their course. Each starts full of happiness...

‘Speaking as a lawyer,’ said Owen, ‘I think that it is very irregular. Speaking as a man, I think no harm could come of it. But I should not like you to offer the whole sum. Sim...

But almost at the same instant, the Selbys entered the church at the further end. Mr. Selby, with his red face and fluffy side-whiskers, had Maude upon his arm. She looked very...

‘I don’t know. I like our feelings to be our very very own, and never to show them to any one else at all. I dare say it is absurd, but that is my instinct.’

They had followed the guide into another small chapel, which bore the name of Henry VII. upon the door. Surely they were great builders and great designers in those days! Had st...

‘Indeed it won’t. I have made arrangements at the office, and from the hour that she first seems bad I will never stir from the house. For all she may say, I know very well that...