Coelebs: The Love Story of a Bachelor

Mr Errol, seated in his pleasant drawing-room scanning a newspaper while his wife occupied herself with some sewing in the twilight hour before the lamps were lighted, suddenly...

When Mr Musgrave entered the yard on the following morning, from force of habit rather than in the expectation of finding Diogenes there, it was to discover Diogenes in his kenn...

John Musgrave stood before the fire in his dining-room, a copy of the _Daily Telegraph_ in his hands. He was not reading the paper; he was looking over the top of it at his new...

Miss Simpson contemplated her appearance by the aid of the long mirror in her wardrobe with an eye sharply critical as that of the vainest of her sisters, whose concern for outw...

With the finish of the holidays the guests at the Hall went their several ways, and there was a lull in the feverish round of gaiety which had moved Moresby out of its accustome...

John Musgrave Sommers was in disgrace. He had been guilty of impertinence to Eliza; worse, he had committed an assault by kicking her maliciously with intent to do bodily harm....

The vicar, as he took off his surplice after the early celebration on Christmas morning, and turned to hang it on its peg, became aware that Robert had entered the vestry, and w...

A few weeks later John Musgrave set out across the fields in search of the vicar. The vicar on that particular morning was engaged in a search of quite another description, a se...

A few days after the dance at the Hall Doctor Fairbridge motored out from Rushleigh to pay a call upon Mrs Chadwick. Nominally the call was upon Mrs Chadwick; the object of his...

Mrs Chadwick's purpose in coming to Moresby was not concerned only, or even chiefly, with the interior decoration of the Hall, which was kept, as far as the squire's means permi...

Mrs Chadwick's departure was as abrupt, and therefore as disconcerting to Mr Musgrave, as her arrival had been. She announced her intention of going one morning, and on the foll...

John Musgrave sat at his solitary breakfast-table and regarded the covered dishes before him with, for the first time within his memory, so little interest in their contents tha...

With the New Year--or, rather, in advance of it--Peggy's youngest sister arrived at the Hall. Mrs Chadwick had invited the entire family; but the Midland doctor could not leave...

The kitchen of John Musgrave's establishment presented on Tuesday evening a scene of unusual activity. Martha, whose love for "Miss" Belle was even deeper than her affection for...

The residents of Moresby--by which is usually understood not the bulk of the community, but that select portion which gathers in the drawing-rooms and about the tables of its so...

The Rev Walter Errol stood in the vestry doorway and watched, as he had watched for many years, his departing congregation. It was a large congregation, disproportionately large...

Miss Peggy Annersley was a niece of Mr Chadwick, one of a family of four girls whom Fate had deprived of their mother in early childhood, and, as though repenting the evil turn...

"Oh," said Peggy Annersley, "I didn't suppose there would be anybody here." This was not strictly accurate, because Peggy had seen Mr Musgrave through the open door as she was p...

May was well advanced before the Chadwicks returned from their wanderings. They came home unexpectedly towards the middle of the month, cutting short their stay in London becaus...

When Peggy Annersley parted from John Musgrave at his gate and set off down the road accompanied by the joyous Diogenes, now freed from the lead, Mr Musgrave turned about and sl...

With the approach of Christmas Mr Musgrave's quiet home took on the air of an over-populated city. A strange woman in a nurse's uniform swelled the party in the kitchen when she...

The troubles of Mr Musgrave as the owner of a bull-dog began forthwith and multiplied exceedingly. Diogenes was driven into Rushleigh that afternoon in the car, and subsequently...

Peggy was fond of boasting that adventures usually met her on her walks abroad. It is a peculiar conceit with some people to believe that things happen for them. To the imaginat...

Miss Simpson, seated against the wall, neglected save by the vicar, who sought to entertain her conversationally since he did not dance, saw him with amazed indignation take his...

The sound of the gun, although it was discharged harmlessly into the unoffending ground, brought home to Peggy the full significance of the sentence that had been passed upon Di...

"I have," said Mrs Chadwick dramatically that same evening to Mrs Sommers, "been exactly a week in Moresby, and I have made two enemies. What will be the result when I have live...

The weeks came and passed, and the work at the Hall continued with unabated energy. Early in November everything was in readiness for the occupation of the new tenants; and with...

When Peggy Annersley got out of her ball-dress in the early hours of that New Year's morning she slipped on a comfortable dressing-gown and sat down before the fire and lighted...

"What jolly stables!" Peggy cried, breathing herself more freely since the imminent discovery of Diogenes was a danger past. They had met no one in the road, had been seen by no...

The Rev Walter Errol, removing, his surplice in the little vestry at the finish of one of the simplest and most pleasing ceremonies at which he had ever been required to officia...