Helen Ford

“No, we are far from rich,” said Helen, divining what she would have said, “but neither are we very poor. I am paid quite a large salary for singing, and—and you must not think...

To Helen they were years of quiet happiness, of steady improvement. There were many deficiencies in her education to be made up. With the aid of private instructors, the best of...

It was growing late. Night had drawn its sombre veil over the great city, and the streets, a little while before filled with busy passers-by, now echoed but seldom to the steps...

There was one difficulty attending the carrying out of her plan which occasioned Helen some embarrassment. She was to present herself at the theatre at six, and would, undoubted...

“You will pardon me,” he said, “if, in the preliminary inquiries I may have to make, there may be anything of a nature to harrow up your feelings, or recall painful scenes.”

The next day Helen resolved to put her plan into execution. As soon as her morning duties were completed, and her father seated at his never-ending task, she dressed herself in...

When the lawyer returned to his office, he found Margaret seated in the same place and in the same attitude in which he had left her. She started when he came into the room, and...

When Margaret left Staten Island after her stormy interview with Jacob Wynne, it was with a fevered brain, and a heart torn with the fiercest emotions. This man, whom despite hi...

Leaving Margaret to recover slowly at the little cottage under her mother’s care, and Helen and her father to the tranquil existence which, though humble, contents them, we pass...

The afternoon was already well advanced when Richard Sharp rose leisurely from the arm-chair in which he had been lounging. He threw aside the stump of a cigar which he had been...

The legal profession numbers among its disciples a large class of honorable and high-minded men; and it also includes some needy adventurers well versed in the arts of pettifogg...

The next morning found Mr. Sharp closeted with a brother practitioner equally unprincipled with himself. There was this difference between them, however, that while Mr. Sharp co...

Helen had been long and anxiously considering in what manner she could employ herself so as to earn a sufficient amount to defray the expenses of living. Every day the little st...

The novelty of possession had not yet palled upon Lewis Rand. It seemed to him still like a dream, of whose reality he could scarcely assure himself. Day after day he wandered t...

Lewis Rand had displayed his usual sagacity in selecting Mr. Sharp as his agent in the affair which now occupied so large a share of his attention. The worthy attorney was not p...

After his interview with the lawyer, Lewis took his way home; his heart alternately cheered with hope, or disturbed by apprehension. On the whole, however, hope predominated. It...

Seated in the theatre, Helen looked about her in bewilderment. She had never been within the walls of a theatre. In the street the sun shone brightly. Here the sun was rigorousl...

Helen and the young artist, who roomed opposite, remained fast friends. From the evening when, by a fortunate chance, he was enabled to defend her from insult he established him...

Not many minutes walk from Broadway, situated on one of the cross streets intersecting the great thoroughfare, is a large building not especially inviting in its aspect, used as...

Herbert Coleman had finished his scanty and unsatisfying breakfast, and was seated before his easel, on which was an unfinished picture. He gazed at it mournfully, for the convi...

It was again morning. Helen sat at the window, which was thrown wide open to admit the pleasant breeze that rustled in and out like a restless sprite, laden, not with rich odors...

Apparently brighter days had dawned upon Helen and her father. With Mr. Sharp’s loan and Helen’s weekly salary they were no longer obliged to practice the pinching economy which...

First, Mr. Rand, who, upon a sick-bed, worn-out by anxiety and bodily weakness, is fast drifting towards that unseen world, where all that is dark and mysterious here will be di...

The character of Robert Ford may be divined without much difficulty from the glimpses which have already been given. He was an amiable man, but strikingly deficient in those pra...

Surprised and terrified at her daughter’s disappearance, the old lady went to the door and, shading her eyes, looked anxiously up the road, but with her failing eyesight she was...

The day after his meeting with Helen and her father, the worthy attorney, Mr. Sharp, took his way leisurely to the boarding-house of Mrs. Morton. Although the object of his visi...

Although the funeral of Mr. Rand was not largely attended,—for his seclusion had prevented his making many acquaintances in the city,—no expense was spared upon it. Lewis was de...

Lewis Rand submitted to what was inevitable, and, as Mr. Sharp predicted, interposed no obstacles in the way of a division of the property. He chose to retain in his own share t...

M’lle Fanchette looked after her with a sneer. “So my lady is putting on airs, is she? I don’t believe her father’s invention will ever come to anything. Perhaps I had better ta...

“What can be your motive, then? I beg you to understand, Miss Ford, that a contract is a contract, and must be kept. Of course your place could be supplied, but it is annoying t...

Jacob Wynne looked in surprise at the person who so persistently barred his progress, and exclaimed, impatiently, “What means all this foolery? Stand aside, my good woman, and l...

When Lewis Rand made choice of Richard Sharp, a briefless barrister, as his agent, in preference to a lawyer of greater reputation, he was influenced by what he considered satis...

Mr. Bowers, the manager, sat at his desk in the little office adjoining the stage, running his eye over a manuscript play presented for examination by an ambitious young man in...

Helen was engaged in rinsing up the breakfast dishes, thinking busily meantime what could be done for Herbert, when a gentle tap called her to the door. Wondering a little at so...

Perhaps no employment is more confining and more poorly compensated than that of sewing. The narrow choice allowed to women, who are compelled to labor for their livelihood, lea...

Margaret lay sick for many weeks in her mother’s cottage, where, it will be remembered, she took refuge when, maddened by the discovery of Jacob’s falsehood, she fled from him,...

If Margaret had been calm in her interview with Jacob Wynne, it was an unnatural calmness. Beneath the surface there were eddies of passionate emotion which must, sooner or late...

I cannot explain why it was, that the unexpected ringing of the bell led to the same thought in the minds of the sick man and his nephew. Sudden fear blanched the face of Lewis;...

The light of a June morning lent a warm and cheerful look to the broad streets, and under its influence even the dingy lanes and alleys looked a little less gloomy than usual. T...

In course of time Helen’s engagement subjected her to a new embarrassment. It was of course late in the evening before she was released from the theatre, leaving her a distance...

Mr. Sharp was seated in his office. A complacent smile played over his features. Perhaps he was thinking of the adroit manner in which he had secured one hundred dollars of the...

It was Sunday morning. To thousands of frames, wearied by exhausting labors, it brought the benediction of rest. To thousands of throbbing brains it brought grateful relaxation....

On the present occasion our legal friend decided to call at once on Mr. Ford, in pursuance of the commission which he received from Lewis Rand. It involved a species of double d...

There had been an indefinable something in Margaret’s manner during her interview with the copyist, which left an unpleasant impression upon his mind. The guilt, of which he was...

Mr. Sharp had now taken the first step towards betraying his client, and was determined not to turn back. Having so far committed himself, he felt that policy dictated expeditio...