Category: Novels

Dr. Wortle's School

THE Rev. Jeffrey Wortle, D.D., was a man much esteemed by others,--and by himself. He combined two professions, in both of which he had been successful,--had been, and continued to be, at the time in which we speak of him. I will introduce him to the reader in the present tens...

Chapters

1. Chapter 1

THE Rev. Jeffrey Wortle, D.D., was a man much esteemed by others,--and by himself. He combined two professions, in both of which he had been successful,--had been, and continued...

2. Chapter 2

THE Doctor had found it difficult to carry out the scheme described in the last chapter. They indeed who know anything of such matters will be inclined to call it Utopian, and t...

3. Chapter 3

MR. PEACOCKE himself said that in this matter a great deal of fuss was made about nothing. Perhaps it was so. He got a ducking, but, being a strong swimmer, probably suffered no...

4. Chapter 4

THE Doctor, instigated by the Bishop, had determined to ask some questions of Mr. Peacocke as to his American life. The promise had been given at the Palace, and the Doctor, as...

5. Chapter 5

"I THOUGHT you were never going to have done with that old Jupiter," said Mrs. Peacocke, as she began at that late hour of the evening to make tea for herself and her husband.

6. Chapter 6

DURING the last six months Mr. Peacocke's most intimate friend at Bowick, excepting of course his wife, had been one of the pupils at the school. The lad was one of the pupils,...

7. Chapter 7

FERDINAND LEFROY, the man who had in truth been the woman's husband, had, during that one interview which had taken place between him and the man who had married his wife, on hi...

8. Chapter 8

DURING the whole of that morning the Doctor did not come into the school. The school hours lasted from half-past nine to twelve, during a portion of which time it was his practi...

9. Chapter 9

IN this way nothing was said at the first telling of the story to decide the fate of the schoolmaster and of the lady whom we shall still call his wife. There certainly had been...

10. Chapter 10

THE Doctor had been all but savage with his wife, and, for the moment, had hated Mr. Puddicombe, but still what they said had affected him. They were both of them quite clear th...

11. Chapter 11

MR. PEACOCKE had been quite right in saying that the secret would at once be known through the whole diocese. It certainly was so before he had been gone a week, and it certainl...

12. Chapter 12

WE will now pass for a moment out of Bowick parish, and go over to Buttercup. There, at Buttercup Hall, the squire's house, in the drawing-room, were assembled Mrs. Momson, the...

13. Chapter 13

IT was not to be expected that the matter should be kept out of the county newspaper, or even from those in the metropolis. There was too much of romance in the story, too good...

14. Chapter 14

BUT there arose a trouble greater than that occasioned by the 'Broughton Gazette.' There came out an article in a London weekly newspaper, called 'Everybody's Business,' which n...

15. Chapter 15

THE Doctor went up to London, and was told by his lawyers that an action for damages probably would lie. "'Amo' in the cool of the evening," certainly meant making love. There c...

16. Chapter 16

"Yes; he wanted me to know that, and he wanted me to know also that the knowledge had come to me from my bishop. I should have thought evil of any one who had sent me the vile r...

17. Chapter 17

THE absence of Dr. and Mrs. Wortle was peculiarly unfortunate on that afternoon, as a visitor rode over from a distance to make a call,--a visitor whom they both would have been...

18. Chapter 18

THE possible glory of Mary's future career did not deter the Doctor from thinking of his troubles,--and especially that trouble with the Bishop which was at present heavy on his...

19. Chapter 19

WE will now follow Mr. Peacocke for a while upon his journey. He began his close connection with Robert Lefroy by paying the man's bill at the inn before he left Broughton, and...

20. Chapter 20

MRS. WORTLE, when she perceived that her husband no longer called on Mrs. Peacocke alone, became herself more assiduous in her visits, till at last she too entertained a great l...

21. Chapter 21

THE school and the parish went on through August and September, and up to the middle of October, very quietly. The quarrel between the Bishop and the Doctor had altogether subsi...

22. Chapter 22

MR. PEACOCKE went on alone to San Francisco from the Ogden Junction, and there obtained full information on the matter which had brought him upon this long and disagreeable jour...

23. Chapter 23

WHEN the Monday came there was much to be done and to be thought of at Bowick. Mrs. Peacocke on that day received a letter from San Francisco, giving her all the details of the...

24. Chapter 24

THE Earl's rejoinder to the Doctor was very short: "So let it be." There was not another word in the body of the letter; but there was appended to it a postscript almost equally...

25. Chapter 25

IN this last chapter of our short story I will venture to run rapidly over a few months so as to explain how the affairs of Bowick arranged themselves up to the end of the curre...