Category: Historical Novels
It was the Vicar’s way in these _tête-à-tête_ conversations by the domestic hearth. He read, and his wife talked to him. He could keep his attention on the most intricate chain of argument, and yet never answer Mrs. Dulcimer’s speculative assertions or vague questionings away...
It was the Vicar’s way in these _tête-à-tête_ conversations by the domestic hearth. He read, and his wife talked to him. He could keep his attention on the most intricate chain...
2. CHAPTER II.AT various periods of his tranquil career the Rev. Clement Dulcimer had found it convenient to add to his income by taking a private pupil or two. He could not have endured what...
3. CHAPTER III.THE Sunday evening service at Little Yafford parish church was as fashionable in its own particular way as an Italian opera in June. Everybody met everybody else there. The psal...
4. CHAPTER IV.THERE was no pleasanter house in Little Yafford or its neighbourhood to visit on a Sunday evening than the shabby old Vicarage, in which Mr. and Mrs. Dulcimer had lived happily...
5. CHAPTER V.THAT deep shadow of gloom which had fallen upon Christian Harefield’s life seemed to have descended also upon the house he lived in. The house--with its low ceilings, narrow cor...
6. CHAPTER VI.THE Monday after that Sunday evening supper at the Vicarage dragged more heavily than any day Beatrix could remember since that never-to-be forgotten awful day when--a little ch...
7. CHAPTER VII.WHEN a benevolent idea entered the mind of the good-natured Mrs. Dulcimer, there immediately began a process of incubation or hatching, as of a patient maternal hen intent on th...
8. CHAPTER VIII.MR. SCRATCHELL occupied a large red brick house at the beginning of the village street, a house that had once been one of the best, if not the best in Little Yafford, but which,...
9. CHAPTER IX.BEATRIX walked up and down by the river, till the gray day grew darker and duller, and the first shadows of evening began to show blue behind the gables and chimney stacks and s...
10. CHAPTER X.PROUDLY as Beatrix had carried herself while she was face to face with her father, her firmness gave way all at once when she left him, and she burst into a flood of tears.
11. CHAPTER XI.WHILE taking charge of Bella Scratchell’s destiny, Mrs. Dulcimer’s busy mind had not forgotten the interests of her older _protégé_, Sir Kenrick Culverhouse, whose mortgaged est...
12. CHAPTER XII.BELLA’S hopes were realized insomuch that her offer to visit his cottagers certainly did bring her more directly in contact with Mr. Culverhouse than she had ever been yet. From...
13. CHAPTER XIII.SIR KENRICK CULVERHOUSE had gone to Hampshire to look at the old domain. He had plenty of friends in the neighbourhood of Culverhouse, who would have been glad to give him hospi...
14. CHAPTER XIV.NEVER in her life had Isabella Scratchell been so happy as she was in those winter days which Beatrix spent in her solitary home, or in long lonely rides or drives across the mo...
15. CHAPTER XV.IN the dark days of December, Mr. Namby, the family practitioner and parish doctor of Little Yafford, was agreeably surprised by a summons to the Water House. His patients there...
16. CHAPTER XVI.‘My word, won’t she have a blow out of mince pies,’ exclaimed the youthful Adolphus, who, from being somewhat restricted as to the good things of this life, was apt to take a ma...
17. CHAPTER XVII.BEATRIX HAREFIELD’S spirits improved in the society of her friend. She was fond of Bella, and believed in Bella’s faithfulness and affection. Her reticence on the subject of Cyr...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.THE two girls at the Water House lived their solitary life all through the dark week before Christmas. They read a great deal; Bella confining herself to the novels from the Gre...