Fairy Fingers A Novel

They were seated in the drawing-room of an ancient château in Brittany,--the Countess Dowager de Gramont and Count Tristan, her only son,--a mansion lacking none of the ponderou...

Bertha's prediction was verified, and the whole château was thrown into confusion by preparations for the coming of the young viscount. Old Baptiste forsook his garden-tools for...

"Fourteen at table, and the Sêvres set only sufficient for twelve! Truly it _is_ untoward, but I wish, my dear aunt, you would not let it trouble you so much. If you will allow...

On the morrow, at the usual hour for visitors, the count and his mother sat in the drawing-room awaiting the promised guest. Maurice, at Count Tristan's solicitation, had very u...

Maurice must have found his equestrian exercise particularly agreeable upon that day, for he returned to the château so late that no one saw him again until the family assembled...

Madeleine, left alone in the old _châlet_, remained for some time absorbed in her work, which progressed rapidly. The ivy leaves were dexterously polished, and a graceful garlan...

Count Tristan was in the heat of argument with his haughty mother, when the door of the library opened, and Madeleine entered. One who had beheld the tempestuous burst of grief,...

Can there be a more dreary solitude, to a mind writhing under the throes of some new and hidden sorrow, than a brilliant ballroom? The stirring music jars like harshest discord...

It chanced that Bertha's letter to Maurice was posted the next morning without the knowledge of Count Tristan and his mother; not, however, through any preconcerted arrangement...

Rapidly as Maurice travelled from Edinburgh to London, the distance seemed interminable to his impetuous spirit. Multitudes of arguments were driven through his mind in long arr...

Maurice, when he took his abrupt leave of Lady Vivian, did not return to the hotel. He felt as though he could not breathe, could not exist, shut within four walls, with the opp...

The marvellous change in the bearing of Gaston de Bois, by which Maurice was struck, had been wrought by a triad of agents. A man who had passed his life in indolent seclusion,...

Up to this period of his life the vigorous constitution of Maurice had suffered no exhausting drain. His habits had been so regular, his mode of life so simple, that his fine _p...

"I wish you would go, Maurice. Do, for my sake!" pleaded Bertha, twisting in her slender fingers a note of invitation. "The Marquis de Fleury was one of the first persons who ca...

Maurice lost no time, the next morning, in seeking out the crafty old Jew. Henriques was a vender of jewels that came into his hands through private sources. There was considera...

A few days after the departure of Maurice for Dresden, the Duke de Montauban made a formal proposal for the hand of Mademoiselle de Merrivale. French etiquette not allowing a su...

"Chiffons!" "_talking chiffons!_" "_writing chiffons!_"--will any one have the goodness to furnish us with a literal yet lucid interpretation of this enigmatical form of speech...

On their arrival in America Ronald took Maurice to his southern home, where he was received with a cordial hospitality that strengthened and confirmed the tie of brotherhood bet...

While Maurice was applying himself to study with a zeal and sense of enjoyment wholly new to him, Bertha was passing through various stages of ennui, and testing the patience, o...

Maurice arrived in Washington without having apprised his father of his purposed visit. Count Tristan received him with ill-concealed embarrassment; but the young viscount was t...

Maurice had so unceremoniously parted from Lord Linden and M. de Bois because he suddenly remembered that Mr. Lorrillard had impressed upon him the necessity of making his arran...

The tangled web Count Tristan had woven for others began to fold its meshes around himself, and to torture him with the dread that he might be caught in his own snare. From the...

"I?" answered Bertha, making an effort to collect herself. "No, I can never be horrified by any act of Madeleine's, for she could never be guilty of an action that was unworthy....

Madeleine's residence was one of the most superb mansions in Washington: a spacious house, built of white stone, and located within a few minutes' walk of the capitol. She was i...

Shortly after M. de Bois returned to the exhibition _salons_, Madeleine entered the workroom. Gaston could see her moving about among the young girls, distributing sketches, mak...

M. de Bois lost no time in communicating to Maurice the result of his visit. He found the young viscount awaiting him with torturing impatience. Gaston had scarcely said that Ma...

When Count Tristan was ushered into Madeleine's presence, he was received, not perhaps with warmth, but with marked courtesy. Nothing in her greeting betrayed that his past cond...

Lord Linden, who had resolved not to leave the house until he had discovered his incognita, waited with laudable patience, closely scanning every lady who passed through the adj...

When Mrs. Gilmer took her leave, Madeleine returned to the seclusion of her own boudoir, having first given orders that she should be apprised when Madame de Fleury made her app...

If Madeleine had been asked which of her relatives would first have sought her after the unexpected _rencontre_ at Madame de Fleury's, she would have answered, "Bertha,"--Bertha...

The severe mental suffering that he endured during the half hour that was occupied in walking from Brown's hotel to the office of Mr. Emerson, may easily be conceived. On reachi...

As we are already aware, Madeleine absolved herself from her usual duties for one day, and made Ruth her representative in the working department. In spite of Madeleine's habitu...

"Do not imagine that I come to be classed among your customers, and order my dresses of you," returned the countess, disdainfully, and waving Madeleine off as the latter advance...

Count Tristan was about to hand Bertha into the carriage which the countess had entered, when the young girl paused, with her tiny foot upon the step. She shrank from a discussi...

Bertha was too happy as she walked toward the hotel, to dread the rebukes which she had good reason to anticipate from the countess. For a young lady to traverse the streets alo...

Lord Linden, when the Viscount de Gramont abruptly left him, returned to his lodgings, and, in spite of the lateness of the hour, wrote to Madeleine, implored her pardon for the...

Count Tristan, on reaching Madeleine's residence was ushered into her boudoir. He found her reclining upon the sofa, with a book in her hand. She had not entirely recovered from...

Around Count Tristan's bed were grouped in silence his four nearest of kin, waiting for the physician who was to decide upon the possibility of removal. The countess sat erect a...

Maurice, exasperated as he was at his grandmother's insolence to his cousin, well knew that any attempt to soothe Madame de Gramont, or even to reconcile her to the inevitable,...

With electric rapidity flashed the news through Washington that Mademoiselle Melanie, the fashionable dressmaker, was a lady of rank,--a heroine,--a being hardly inferior to tho...

Maurice did not suspect how Bertha was employed at that moment, and how much his heart would have had cause to rejoice if she proved successful in her undertaking. She was so ha...

A fortnight passed on. At its close the vigorous constitution of the countess, united to her powerful volition, gained a victory over her malady. She had remained unshaken in he...

Madame de Gramont welcomed Maurice that morning with more animation than she had evinced during her illness. He did not anticipate finding her in the drawing-room; and was even...

The strongest heart will sometimes betray that it is overtaxed through the pressure of a sorrow which appears trivial contrasted with the stupendous burdens it has borne unflinc...

Maurice, with as much _nonchalance_ as he could assume, informed his grandmother that he had engaged a _garde malade_ to assist in the care of his father. When good Mrs. Lawkins...

Madeleine was accustomed to see Maurice at a certain hour every day, and looked forward to that period with such joyous expectation that a sense of disquiet, amounting to positi...

"Oh, you have come at last!" exclaimed the countess, with acrimony, as Maurice opened the door of his father's chamber. Then, pointing to the count, who still lay in a state of...

Madeleine, in spite of the positive denial she had received, experienced as strong a desire to be near her afflicted relative as though his yearning for her presence drew her to...

Who cannot conceive the consternation of Gaston de Bois when he learned that Madame de Gramont had resolved to return to Brittany with her son, and that Bertha had promised to a...

"Take care! the 'Don' will be jealous!" exclaimed Mr. Walton, as he witnessed his wife's greeting of Maurice,--a greeting as tender as a true mother could have bestowed. "When R...

Once more Count Tristan was convalescent. He could move his limbs with tolerable freedom,--could walk without support, though with slow, uncertain, uneven steps; his articulatio...

Maurice was on his way to Madeleine's. Not for years, not since the day when he breathed his love in the old Château de Gramont, had his heart throbbed with such rapturous pulsa...

Maurice could not tear himself away; he was still lingering by Madeleine's side when Bertha and Gaston entered to pay their daily visit. The perfect joy that rendered luminous t...

Another week passed on. The day preceding that on which the countess and her party were to set out on their journey had arrived. All the necessary preparations were progressing...

Maurice, when he opened the door of his grandmother's drawing-room, found the apartment vacant. The countess was still in her own chamber issuing orders to the bewildered Adolph...

When the fever gradually abated, and consciousness returned to the countess, she lay in a state of half-dreamy exhaustion which precluded the power of thought or the stir of her...

The wound in Madeleine's head was dangerously near her temple. Her long swoon had been caused by the severity of the blow, and she was completely exhausted by her great loss of...

precisely how to make a pillow yield the best support,--a low, soft, yet encouraging voice,--a cheerful, yet symathizing[sympathizing] face,--a soundless step,--garments that ne...