A voyage of discovery

"Why are you going to the United States?" asked an American, no longer in his first youth, of a young Englishwoman, on board the _Teutonic_, the second day after they had left L...

It was only this young woman's great charm of manner which prevented her curiosity sometimes from seeming obtrusive. But there was such genuine interest in the look of her clear...

The small gathering in Mrs. Courtly's cabin at five o'clock, which looked at first as if it would be what Mordaunt Ballinger called "frosty," ended, by reason of the hostess's t...

The rest of the voyage was performed swiftly and uneventfully. Mordaunt Ballinger walked the quarter-deck for hours with certain American men, whom he encouraged to talk of thei...

"DEAREST AUNT SUSAN,--We were delighted to have your telegram just before starting, saying that Miss Frampton had rallied. I hope that her recovery will be so rapid as to enable...

Sir Mordaunt Ballinger was, indeed, as his sister had said, made a great deal of in New York society. It took but a few days to accomplish this. From the square, business-like l...

"MY DEAR MISS BALLINGER,[1]--I hope to call on you to-morrow; but I wish first to explain who I am. My husband was well acquainted with Sir Henry Ballinger, and he was our guest...

The next morning Grace sat turning over the leaves of a book which had just been sent her. The elderly author had been presented to her the evening before, and had promptly sent...

Quintin Ferrars was gone, and Miss Ballinger acknowledged to herself that she missed his visits greatly. His conversation, it is true, aroused her combativeness as no one else's...

Mordaunt Ballinger's luncheons at the Lawyers' Club, and his introductions to various magnates of the money-market, had led to his mind being tossed and buffeted on a sea of rai...

The ball of hospitality which had been set rolling by kindly hands a month since was snatched from one to another during that last week of our travellers' stay in New York, and...

The next day was Sunday, and when the party assembled at breakfast, at half-past nine, it appeared that Mrs. Courtly had already been to early communion at the neighboring church.

A man who in middle age falls passionately in love, after many bitter disappointments, is as liable to do foolish things, in this same matter, as a raw youth of twenty. He is bl...

The reply to Grace's note, which Mrs. Barham wired back, was to the effect that the Rev. James Barham and she would be delighted to receive Miss Ballinger at Fellbridge on Thurs...

Of the quartette that sat down to dinner that evening--a homely dinner, without pretension--three at least were in the best of spirits, and ready to laugh over Molly's peculiar...

Saul did not return to Fellbridge that evening with his mother and Grace. Mrs. Barham, indeed, urged him not to do so, seeing how ill he looked, and he yielded without a word. H...

"What does the man give me an orange for, such a morning as this? As to this ice-water, I would not touch a drop of it, in any weather. I hope you have not, either of you, taken...

Mrs. Reid called the next day with her son. She was a solid-looking lady of rather severe aspect, with spectacles, as unlike as possible to her thin, quick-witted son. Mordaunt...

The morning after this dinner, Mordaunt, looking up from his newspaper, said with a laugh, "Well! You've done it this time, Gracey--you profited by experience, and were civil to...

The next day, when another slight fall of snow in the night had been frozen as hard as the surface of a wedding-cake over all the roads in the district, Mordaunt was driven by P...

"MY DEAR MISS BALLINGER,--I thank you heartily for your letter. It has brought the only great pleasure I have had for months. This has been a miserable time, but I hope and beli...

Two young men were waiting at the depot, evidently prepared by telegram for Miss Planter's arrival. In the course of the evening several more appeared at the Palace Hotel, among...

If anything could have raised Mordaunt's spirits that night it would have been his supper with the joyous Bohemians--listening to their banjos and bright choruses, and hearing t...

Three days later, Mordaunt, who inquired at the office every morning whether Mr. Planter's family was expected, learned that the best suite of rooms was retained for that gentle...