Fated to Be Free: A Novel

Mrs. Henfrey in taking leave of Amelia had expressed her pleasure at the prospect of shortly seeing her again. They were all coming by invitation to lunch, the next day, at her...

John had regarded the impending death of his father more as a loss and a misfortune than is common. He and the old man, besides being constant companions, had been very intimate...

"Fairest fair, best of good. Too high for hope that stood; White star of womanhood shining apart O my liege lady, And O my one lady, And O my loved lady, come down to my heart.

A few days after this Emily was coming down the lane leading to John Mortimer's house, having taken leave of Justina at the railway station. She was reading a letter just receiv...

"Most impertinent of Swan," he heard the former say, to be arguing thus about political affairs in the presence of the children. And what Mr. Mortimer can be thinking of, inviti...

Miss Christie Grant, sitting with Emily at ten o'clock in the morning, heard a ring at the bell, which she thought she knew. She pricked up her head to listen, and as it ceased...

"'As he has not trusted me, he will never know how I should scorn to be a thief,' quoth the school boy yesterday, when his master's orchard gate was locked; but, 'It's all his o...

"If I _should_ die young--if she _should_ find that I have left every shilling and every acre away from you and her, two of the people I love most, and thrown it into the hands...

The shade of twilight was but just fleeting, a faint glow waxed over the eastern hills, and the great orchard of pear-trees that pressed up to one end of Melcombe House showed w...

In one of the south-western counties of England, some years ago, and in a deep, well-wooded valley where men made perry and cider, wandered little and read less, there was a ham...

"The log's burn red; she lifts her head For sledge-bells tinkle and tinkle, O lightly swung. 'Youth was a pleasant morning, but ah! to think 'tis fled, Sae lang, lang syne,' quo...

"Nonsense," said John; "but yes, I'll take some of the children, for of course you feel awkward." He did not add, "You should not have made such a fool of yourself," lest Valent...

Her little nephew, Dorothea's child, was four days old. He had spent many of his new-found hours sleeping in her arms, while she cherished him with a keen and painful love, full...

Laura wrote with difficulty an answer to Lizzy Grant's letter. It is easier for the sister to say, "My brother is a dishonourable young fellow, and has behaved shamefully," than...

Some one passing Valentine as he walked home in the gloaming, started, and hurried on. "He came up so still-like," she said, afterwards, "that I e'en took him for a sperit, he b...

And now was to take place that ceremony to which Madam Melcombe's thoughts had so often been directed. She had tried to arrange that it should be imposing, and imposing indeed i...

"Now I am at a loss to know whether it be my hare's foot that is my preservation; for I never had a fit of the collique since I wore it; or whether it be my taking of a pill of...

"It is the way with the Mortimers, I think," said Emily. "I should not wonder if in ten years' time Val is just as majestic as the old men used to be, though he has no dignity a...

John Mortimer, thanks to a strong frame and an excellent constitution, was soon able to rise. He stood by his little Janie when she was laid in the grave, and felt, when he coul...

"Midsummer night, not dark, not light. Dusk all the scented air, I'll e'en go forth to one I love, And learn how he doth fare. O the ring, the ring, my dear, for me, The ring wa...

Many and many an hour had Peter spent, when he was a very little boy, in gazing through the heavy banister-like railings of the gallery; and, as he grew older, in pensively lean...

"He climbed the wall of heaven, and saw his love Safe at her singing; and he left his foes In vales of shadow weltering, unassoiled, Immortal sufferers henceforth, in both worlds."

"'Has she no faults then,' Envy says, 'Sir?' 'Yes, she has one, I must aver; When all the world conspires to praise her The woman's deaf, and does not hear.'"

In less than a week from the receipt of his son's letter, John Mortimer wrote again, and gave the boy leave to come home, but on no account to bring young Crayshaw with him, if...

Mrs. Peter Melcombe, all unconscious of the unfavourable impression her son had made on his late host, continued to think a good deal of the agreeable widower. She made Peter wr...

"Your baby-days flowed in a much-troubled channel; I see you as then in your impotent strife, A tight little bundle of wailing and flannel, Perplexed with that newly-found farde...

Laura and Mrs. Melcombe went home, and Laura saw the window again that Joseph had so skilfully glazed. Joseph was not there, and Laura would not have occupied herself with const...

Valentine was at Melcombe again. He had begun several improvements about the place which called for time, and would cost money. It was not without misgiving that he had consente...

And now John Mortimer had again possession of his ring. Emily had sent it, together with a little book that she had borrowed some time previously, and the whole was so done up i...

"To be sure," said John, and looking more directly at Valentine, he noticed an air of depression and gloom which seemed rather too deep to be laid to the account of the _True Bl...

"Now there was a great calm at that time in the river; wherefore Mr. Standfast, when he was about half way in, he stood awhile, and talked to his companions that had waited upon...

After she had received the promise she desired from her sons--a promise burdened with so strange a condition--Madam Melcombe seemed to lose all the keenness and energy she had d...

"For life is like unto a winter's day, Some break their fast and so depart away; Others stay dinner, then depart full fed; The longest age but sups, and goes to bed."

"One of the most unfortunate occurrences I ever heard of. Well, that that is, is--and can't be helped. I'd have given something (over and above the ten-and-sixpence) to have had...

"The world would lose its finest joys Without its little girls and boys; Their careless glee and simple ruth, And innocence and trust and truth; Ah! what would your poor poet do...

"Why, you young rogues, you make your father blush for your appetites," said John Mortimer to his boys, when he saw Valentine at the head of the table, serving out great slices...

"Even as the sparrow findeth an house, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, so I seek thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God."--Psalm lxxxi...

"The fairy woman maketh moan, 'Well-a-day, and well-a-day, Forsooth I brought thee one rose, one, and thou didst cast my rose away.' Hark! Oh hark, she mourneth yet, 'One good s...