Ellen Levis: A Novel

On a dismal day in March, four years before Ellen Levis was born or dreamed of, the slight acquaintance of Stephen Lanfair and Edward Levis was quickened by an unpleasant incide...

Outside the Saal or meeting-room of the old Kloster all was hot and bright in the sunshine. The thick grass in the enclosure which surrounded the group of strangely fashioned bu...

After Ellen had beaten her way with gasps for breath up the slope beyond the meeting-house, she slackened her pace. She began to doubt pursuit, and besides she could now trust t...

It was not because of ingratitude or altogether because of forgetfulness that Stephen Lanfair had neglected his friend. Their association had continued as long as circumstances...

Levis was the only member of his family who had a great deal to say on the Sunday following Matthew's declaration of faith. At meals Matthew ate with his eyes fixed upon his pla...

Anticipation of some unusual happening woke Ellen early on Monday morning. She lay for an instant staring at the whitewashed walls, at the carved pineapples tipping the posts of...

That Grandfather would give up the children without a struggle was unlikely. When a month had passed and they had not reappeared at service, he went to visit his son-in-law, tak...

After stabling his horses Matthew came into the house. One would have thought that any lad would have found the prospect of Ellen on one side of Dr. Levis's desk and the doctor...

That Matthew had returned, that he was to live henceforth with Grandfather, that he was not even to come to the house, were facts which Ellen found difficult to comprehend, yet...

A large store of information may be put into a receptive mind in two years. Levis, watching his sturdy young Ellen to see that her bright cheeks did not grow pale or her alert s...

Within a few minutes the farmhouse took on the air of almost hysterical activity which follows upon a sudden death. Mrs. Sassaman, after sinking upon a chair and giving a few te...

Mrs. Fetzer, the housekeeper, received Hilda's dinner guests on the evening of the visit to Levis. It was not a convenient season for guests, it being Sunday and the larger part...

To Millie König the last few weeks of single life were a period of intense satisfaction. Her waiting for Matthew and matrimony had seemed long, but now, at last happiness and pr...

In the autumn evenings Grandfather sat beside his stove in meditation. It was against his principles to permit himself too high a degree of physical comfort, but as the current...

Life in the Levis house, tolerable during the remaining weeks of the summer and early fall when there was much to be done out of doors, assumed a more complex character when it...

The spectacle of complete happiness is so rare that it is valuable as a phenomenon, even when its causes are not wholly commendable. A queen upon her throne who knows no threate...

There was this time for Ellen no interested inspection of the landscape. Her gaze, directed to the back of the next seat, did not lift to the hat of its occupant, but remained f...

Matthew had undertaken a large stint of ploughing on the Monday when Ellen went away. The field in which he worked lay on the same ridge as the woodland and commanded a wide str...

Ellen spent a dreary Sunday within doors and from time to time shed tears. She had not minded rain in the country, but this day was intolerable. All the afternoon Mrs. Lebber an...

Fetzer, though small of stature and retiring of mien, had no misgivings about her ability to manage the Lanfair house. Her instructions to Ellen were given with as much positive...

Grandfather Milhausen, having heard the echoes of the slamming door die away and the gate close with a loud click after angry Matthew, began to pray. The traditional language of...

During the winter Ellen's attitude toward the house in which she lived and toward all the occupants save one was that of an observant pupil. She liked the house not alone for it...

Mayne answered Stephen's telephone call with his usual abounding cordiality. He was glad to hear Stephen's voice and he had been thinking about running up to spend the night. Ye...

No sooner had Amos let Ellen go away from him than he regretted his foolishness. He might as well have walked back with her to the house where she lived and thus have been much...

Stephen's forty-second birthday fell upon the day on which he made the final arrangements for Hilda's residence at the King Sanatorium. He had not seen her because she was obses...

In late September Matthew began to cut the corn in the field which he had ploughed a year ago when Ellen went away. He began early in the morning and worked doggedly and alone....

When Ellen reached Harrisburg, Fickes awaited her. To him Fetzer had made a brief statement of Ellen's changed prospects and he said, as he guided the car over the smooth street...

During the short spring vacation Ellen went with Miss Grammer to visit Niagara Falls. Stephen thought with satisfaction of Miss Grammer, placing her in the same class with Miss...

Amos had acquired during the past winter a considerable addition to his library. The publishers added the famous tales of "Père Goriot" and "Madame Bovary" to their lists, and i...

Fetzer did not sleep well the night before Ellen returned to college, nor had she slept well for several preceding nights. More than once during the past ten days she had been a...

In the fading light of a December afternoon Miss Grammer and Ellen went together to an organ recital in the chapel. Only the lamps at the organ were lighted and they found their...

During the long hours in which Grandfather waited for Amos, he reviewed his life, searching like Job to find where he had erred and how he had brought upon himself the heavy pun...

The first sting of disappointment past, Ellen believed that she was glad that her Christmas journey had been made impossible. She might have betrayed herself, and the only light...

When Stephen returned from his excursion with Professor Mayne, Miss MacVane had installed a young woman in his office and had herself taken charge of his house, filling her new...

Dawn, which came as slowly as the dawns of winter, brought a returning Bill in the car of a physician whom he had found after much forgetful wandering. A lifeless body lay upon...

Ellen sent to Harrisburg no notification of her coming. She was now convinced that she had thorough control of herself, and that she could meet Stephen safely. He might be away-...

Stephen woke from unconsciousness to incredible sensations of nausea and weakness and pain. In his mind two convictions alternated; the first that he was an enormous body which...

When the journey was over and the offices inspected, Stephen sat in his room. Fetzer, controlling her emotions in his presence, had gone to the third story both to rejoice and t...

Fetzer presently dried her tears and, remembering a message which was to be delivered to Miss Knowlton, smoothed her hair which was already smooth and went down to the office. W...