Cicely

ONLY early April, but already a very hot day—what we dwellers in the north would consider an almost unendurably hot day! But in the pleasantest part of the sunny south of France...

DOWN in the smiling south, spring had come even earlier than its wont this year, but in England things had been very different. Since January, the weather had been unusually sev...

HAD Mr. Guildford been a native of Sothernshire, he could not but have been familiar with the name of the Methvyns of Carling, one of the oldest and wealthiest families of the c...

“All the land. . . . Smelt of the coming summer, as one large cloud Drew downward; but all else of heaven was pure Up to the sun, and May from verge to verge, And May with me fr...

“Where lies the land to which the ship would go? Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know; And where the land she travels from? Away, Far, far behind, is all that they can say,”

“He is as sober a man as most of the young nobility. His fortune is great. In sense he neither abounds nor is wanting; and that class of men, take my word for it, are the best q...

THE next day was Sunday. A Sunday beautiful enough to make Cicely’s wish that she could spend it altogether in the woods seem excusable. It was better than “a perfect day;” it w...

THE week that followed this bright Sunday was dull and rainy. Geneviève went about the house shivering, and was not consoled by Cicely’s calm assurance that it was only what was...

MRS. CRICHTON had left Sothernbay a few days before her brother’s first visit to Colonel Methvyn, so Mr. Guildford was alone again. He missed his sister more than usual; his hou...

EARLY summer was the time of all others for seeing Lingthurst Copse to advantage, for the soil thereabouts was dry and gravelly, and a few weeks of hot weather destroyed the fre...

TREVOR called at Greystone the next day, and was closeted with Colonel Methvyn for some time. Cicely and her cousin were in the house when he came, but, considerably to their su...

THERE were letters from Hivèritz the next morning, one for Geneviève and one for Mrs. Methvyn. Both had been looked for with some anxiety, and their contents were fortunately in...

GENEVIÈVE came down to luncheon with hopelessly red eyes and a general air of extreme depression. Cicely looked at her kindly, and spoke to her gently; it was impossible not to...

But suddenly the occurrences of the previous day returned to her recollection. Mr. Fawcett, what was he?—her own all but acknowledged lover, the rich, handsome young Englishman,...

“La beauté,” reprit Riquet à la Houppe, “est unsi grand avantage qu’il doit tenir lieu de tout le reste; et, quand on le possède, je ne vois pas qu’il y ait rien qui puisse vous...

LADY FREDERICA FAWCETT was in great tribulation. Her faithful shadow, Miss Winter, had received a letter summoning her at once to the bedside of a dying sister. It was a summons...

“. . . there arrives a lull in the hot race * * * * * * And an unwonted calm pervades his breast. And then he thinks he knows The hills where his life rose, And the sea where it...

THEY drove to Roodsmere on Thursday. The weather was still beautiful—summer seemed very reluctant to say good-bye. But the very next day—the Friday on which Geneviève was expect...

“Yet I will but say what mere friends say, Or only a thought stronger; I will hold your hand but as long as all may, Or so very little longer!”

She had felt very miserable all day. Her anxiety about her father was by no means thoroughly allayed, and she knew that her chief support had failed her; and the impression left...

“Ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair; How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary, fu’ o’ care! Ye’ll break my heart, ye warbling birds...

WHO are the social ravens that at all times and places are ready and eager to perform their self-appointed task as bearers of ill tidings? Like the mysterious “rats of Paris,” e...

THE sad days that intervened between Colonel Methvyn’s death and his funeral went by slowly. But they wore through at last, and Cicely woke one morning to realise that “all was...

“What thing is Love which nought can countervail? Nought save itself, ev’n such a thing is Love. All worldly wealth in worth as far doth fail, As lowest earth doth yield to Heav...

“It is not for what he would be to me now, If he still were here, that I mourn him so: It is for the thought of a broken vow, And for what he was to me long ago.”

“Is Death as sad as Life? Soon we shall know. It does not seem to me They find it so Who die, and going from us Smile as they go.”

THE band was playing on the “Place” at Hivèritz; it was a beautiful spring-like afternoon, though only the middle of January. A goodly number of the visitors, and many of the re...

“Listen how the linnets sing, Cicely dear; Watch you where the lilies spring, Cicely sweet.” * * * * * * “The lilies shall be for thy brow to wear, The linnets shall sing of the...

“I didn’t notice him. I don’t see any one that I ever saw before in my life, as far as I know,” replied the girl of whom the question was asked, glancing indifferently round. “A...

CICELY was but half satisfied by Amiel’s assurance that she “was only teasing her,” and very much inclined to arrange shopping expeditions—a bait she had generally found irresis...