An Interloper

Only Leon's power of letting trouble slip from him as readily as water trickles from a duck's back enabled him to go about the estate as if to-day were the same as yesterday. He...

It was true, as Jean had murmured to himself, that Mme. Leon was by birth bourgeoise. As for the De Beaudrillarts, all France knew that they belonged, not only to the noblesse,...

Young M. de Beaudrillart was as good as his word. In her wildest dreams even his mother--whose hopes had undergone many deaths and many resurrections--had not ventured to pictur...

Monsieur Raoul, in his carriage, was making the round of the estates. To a certain extent, this was a frequent custom, but there were times when it was attended by a more delibe...

Leon's mood changed like a weathercock on a gusty English day. Extreme wrath with Charles Lemaire alternated with the fancy that it was a foolish charge which no one in their se...

In spite of M. Bourget's assumption of indifference, he was secretly tormented by anxiety as to what was going on in Paris. Nathalie wrote to him every day, though seldom more t...

Nathalie trusted, and her husband took for granted, that friendlier relations would spring up between her and her mother and sisters in law; but as the months rolled on, there w...

Mme. Lemaire stood in the window of M. de Cadanet's sitting-room, looking out. The day before he had been wheeled into it, and with the fretfulness of an invalid had declared it...

M. Bourget of Tours, meanwhile, should have been a happy man, for he had all but reached the very summit of his desires. His daughter was installed at Poissy, and twenty times a...

After the child's birth the years slipped swiftly, though not always smoothly, by. Leon, who easily forgot, had very nearly succeeded in forgetting that desperate act of his, an...

[The author has given the cross-examination in the shape best known to English readers, since it is a mere question of form. French counsel _do_ examine, though they may not dir...

When Nathalie, by a strong effort of will, succeeded in calling back her thoughts from following her husband, her eyes fell upon M. Rodoin, who sat respectfully opposite to her...

It was two days after this that Mme. Leon came in from the garden by the outer stone staircase which led to her own room. Although it was only autumn, a chilly wind was blowing,...

Romance, which gives itself the airs of unfettered liberty, has nevertheless its laws, and it was contrary to these laws that Leon should have been in love with the girl who bro...

The years that came and went at Poissy after the birth of this baby son were slowly drawing away the life of M. de Cadanet in that little Paris hotel, which yet to his shrunk in...

The letter which arrived at Poissy came with all the force of a shock to Mme. de Beaudrillart and her daughters. It was true that they were well aware that an evil menaced, but...

Nathalie had written a hasty line to her father before leaving Poissy. He received it with an outbreak of temper, such as of late had become frequent with him. He had almost giv...

There was a minute of dumb horror; then Felicie would have broken into lamentation before the messenger if Claire had not hastily signed to him to go round to the offices. Leon...

In his present mood Leon would have avoided any visitor, and M. Georges perhaps most of all; for to go over the estates, point out improvements and changes, and listen to the ca...

The country round Poissy, mellow with ripening grapes, sunned itself in broad luxuriance, and the river threaded it lazily, its silver length curving snake-like between green ed...

The incident of the empty envelope had sent dreariest conviction home to M. Bourget. That he should have read black proof in it was not perhaps astonishing; yet he had so strong...

"Do you think--" he glanced at her again and was silent. Both were silent. They could hear the cooing of the pigeons in the yard; presently a child's shout of laughter rang out,...

Meanwhile, with father and mother torn by a hundred miserable fears at home, it may be supposed that, in Paris, the wife's trouble was greater. Nothing of the sort. Nathalie was...

M. Bourget would have been indignant at hearing that he might not accompany his daughter if the mandate had come from a less person than Maitre Barraud. But he had a profound re...

The famous trial was at an end, and talk rapidly subsiding. After Mme. Lemaire's evidence it was felt that the prosecution fell to the ground, and the jury brought in an acquitt...

Maitre Barraud had, by little and little, built up a theory for his defence which, thanks to his keen observation and brilliant intuition, was not far from the truth. He was sat...

There was no sign of life as with difficulty they dragged him out of the water. His hands were tied together by a handkerchief, drawn to a knot, as Jacques guessed, by his teeth...

Felicie's untiring energy had really provided a very pretty welcome for the bishop. She had collected all the children far and near, given them flags and garlands of vine to car...