Hopes and Fears or, scenes from the life of a spinster

'You might almost as well be gone,' said Ratia. 'You aren't half so useful in keeping things going as you were once; and you won't be ornamental long, if you let your spirits be...

Behold Phoebe Fulmort seated in a train on the way to London. She was a very pleasant spectacle to Miss Charlecote opposite to her, so peacefully joyous was her face, as she sat...

Fearless she had tracked his feet To this rocky, wild retreat, And when morning met his view, Her mild glances met it too. Ah! your saints have cruel hearts, Sternly from his be...

O ye, who never knew the joys Of friendship, satisfied with noise, Fandango, ball, and rout, Blush, when I tell you how a bird A prison, with a friend, preferred, To liberty wit...

But, ah me! she's a heart of stone, Which Cupid uses for a hone, I verily believe; And on it sharpens those eye-darts, With which he wounds the simple hearts He bribes her to de...

Enid, my early and my only love, I thought, but that your father came between, In former days you saw me favourably, And if it were so, do not keep it back, Make me a little hap...

May had come round again before Robert Fulmort stood waiting at the Waterloo Station to welcome the travellers, who had been prohibited from putting Bertha's restored health to...

'This is a stroke of good luck!' said Mr. Charteris. 'We must not, on any account, remove the Sandbrook children from Miss Charlecote; she has no relations, and will certainly m...

My pride, that took Fully easily all impressions from below, Would not look up, or half despised the height To which I could not, or I would not climb. I thought I could not bre...

O fy gar ride and fy gar rin And haste ye to find these traitors agen, For shees be burnt and hees been slein, The wearifu gaberlunzie man. Some rade upon horse, some ran afit,...

An upper and a lower spring To thee, to all are given: They mingle not, apart they gleam, The joys of earth, of heaven on high; God grant thee grace to choose the spring, Even b...

'The children are different at home,' said Owen, quietly; 'but,' he added, with the same sad humility, 'I dare say they will be much the better for the change; I know--'

Phoebe was left to the vacancy of the orphaned house, to a blank where her presence had been gladness, and to relief more sad than pain, in parting with her favourite brother, a...

When some dear scheme Of our life doth seem Shivered at once like a broken dream And our hearts to reel Like ships that feel A sharp rock grating against their keel.--C. F. A.

Among the numerous steeples counted from the waters of the Thames, in the heart of the City, and grudged by modern economy as cumberers of the soil of Mammon, may be remarked an...

When will you marry? Say the bells of St. Mary. When I get rich, Say the bells of Shoreditch. When will that be? Say the bells of Stepney. I do not know, Says the great bell of...

Happy are they that learn in Him, Though patient suffering teach The secret of enduring strength, And praise too deep for speech: _Peace_ that no pressure from without, No strif...

Only three sides were occupied. For more than two years past good Miss Wells had been lying under the shade of Hiltonbury Church, taking with her Honora Charlecote's last sembla...

A letter from Humfrey! how Honor's heart fluttered. Would it announce an engagement, or would it promise a visit on which her fate would turn, or would it be only a business let...

Six was the regulation hour. Systematic education had discovered that half-an-hour was the maximum allowable for morning toilette, and at half-past six the young ladies must pre...

Often a first grief, where sorrow was hitherto been a stranger, is but the foretaste to many another, like the first hailstorm, after long sunshine, preluding a succession of sh...

A June evening shed a slanting light over the greensward of Hiltonbury Holt, and made the western windows glisten like diamonds, as Honora Charlecote slowly walked homewards to...

Seven years more, and Honora was in mourning for her mother. She was alone in the world, without any near or precious claim, those clinging tendrils of her heart rent from their...

Robert had promised to return in the end of March to be present at the Assizes, when the burglars would be tried, and he did not come alone. Mr. Crabbe judged it time to inspect...

That was all the intelligence that reached Woolstone-lane till the court-gates were opened, and Robert hurried in before the carriage. 'Much better,' he said 'only he is sadly k...

But the pine woods waved, And the white streams raved; They told me in my need, That softness and feeling Were not soul-healing; And so it was decreed-- That the marvellous flow...

'I don't care for Mrs. Stubbs! I won't take my boots off! Get off--I'll kick you if you touch them! I shall go where I like! I'm a gentleman. I shall ave hall the Olt for my ver...

Close within us we will carry, strong, collected, calm, and brave, The true panoply of quiet which the bad world never gave; Very serpents in discretion, yet as guileless as the...

Have you seen but a bright lily grow, Before rude hands have touched it? Have you marked but the fall of the snow, Before the soil hath smutched it?--BEN JONSON

He who sits by haunted well Is subject to the Nixie's spell; He who walks on lonely beach To the mermaid's charmed speech; He who walks round ring of green Offends the peevish F...

Like flowers upon the spray, All lowliness, not sadness, Bright are their thoughts, and rich, not gay, Grave in their very gladness, Shedding calm summer light over life's chang...

and see Owen. She obeyed with alacrity, and was conducted to the study. No Randolf was there, only pen, ink, paper, and algebra. But as she was greeting Owen, who looked much be...

Considerate of the slender purses of her children, Honora had devoted her carriage to fetch them to St. Wulstan's on the Sunday morning, but her offer had been declined, on the...

Phoebe and Maria went alone to the Park to receive the bridal pair, for poor Bertha was so nervous and unhinged as not even to wish to leave the fireside. It was plain that she...

'It is that photography, mamma. Miss Sandbrook is so busy with it! I could not copy in my translation that I did yesterday, because she had not looked over it, and when she said...

_Mascarille_.--Oh! oh! je ne prenois pas garde; Tandis que sans songer a mal, je vous regarde Votre oeil en tapinois me derobe mon coeur, Au voleur! au voleur! au voleur! au vol...

The ladies of the house were going to a ball, and were in full costume: Eloisa a study for the Arabian Nights, and Lucilla in an azure gossamer-like texture surrounding her like...

The case of the three sisters remained a difficulty. The Bannermans professed to have 'washed their hands of them,' their advice not being taken, and Mr. Crabbe could not think...

'Quaint little white-capped objects! The St. Wulstan's girls marching to St. Paul's! Ah! the banner I helped to work! How well I remember the contriving that crozier upon it! Ho...

Untouched by love, the maiden's breast Is like the snow on Rona's crest High seated in the middle sky, In bright and barren purity; But by the sunbeam gently kissed, Scarce by t...