Jenny: A Village Idyl

To explain why this was a wonder it is necessary to state that the front rooms of the house were for the most part unoccupied; the family, especially since Mr Robson’s illness,...

NAT had rushed up the stairs and thrown himself on his bed with that sense of injury which is so keen at seventeen, and which compels us to find relief in tramping heavily, and...

ALL else, however, had not departed yet from the wilful life that seemed openly disgraced--for, although Annie had been found on the door-step in the darkness, there were still...

THE slanting light made the corn-fields into a radiance when Nat returned in the evening from the town. With the slow step of one who lingers and hesitates he went along the pat...

SO down into darkness sank that New Year’s Eve, with its half-revealed story, its completed tragedy, leaving town and country provided with surmises, and stirred with much talk,...

THE Farm was now lying in the full sunlight of noon, for the storm had swept by, and again the sky was clear, although grass was dripping and branches shone with moisture, which...

THAT home was in order although it was the morning, and daintily ready for the business of the day--an appearance that was always conspicuous wherever the hands of Jenny moved a...

THE room in which Mr Bender had chosen to hold his Meeting, for the benefit of some adherents who could not get to the town, was in a lane in the village of Harmenton, on the br...

THE rest must follow--was already on its way, in as sure a course as that of the golden autumn days--and already with speculations concerning Jenny Salter’s daughter were mingle...

WHILST Jenny was making her solitary way through the darkness, the library at the Hall had been lighted with wax candles, and Nat was standing there before Mr Mallory. It was a...

THE village of Warton is situated on the river, about three miles from the cathedral town of Lindum, and commands a good view of the cathedral towers, and, from its highest grou...

IF James Gillan had possessed an amount of courage equal to the skill for which we have given him credit more than once, he might have been able to make some resistance to calam...

THE words which rang in Annie’s ears were heard also by her brother, who stood almost unrecognised amidst the crowd of men, bewildered, gasping, scarcely knowing where he was, o...

THE next day Farmer Robson’s daughter was seated at her work, when the sound of footsteps announced a visitor; and, as she rose to meet the disturber of her solitude, the door o...

‘I HAVE come, sir,’ James Gillan said, raising his eyes modestly, ‘in consequence of the letter from yourself which I received to-day. If I had not received it you may be sure t...

THE village news, spreading fast, as has been said, was not long in reaching the mansion of the Squire, the grey house that was situated upon the hill, with trees around it and...

NAT awoke the next morning, feeling sore and stiff, a feeling not uncommon with people who have spent their night on the floor; but, tired as he was, the habit induced by traini...

WHO was this guardian angel who was making an attempt to save from threatening danger Jenny Salter’s boy and girl, who had risen from his bed upon a holiday to deliver a warning...

ON that same evening, whilst darkness lay on the fields, and in the dim Thackbusk meadow the two wandering figures met, there were bright fires and lights and a pleasant sense o...

AND now let us attempt to realise his position--the position of Nat, alone, and in the night, condemned, chastised, his teeth ground in helpless fury, dismissed from his employm...

THE dying sunlight was bright on fields and Fens, and had still a radiance for roofs and corners of walls, when a motley assemblage of men, and lads, and children gathered toget...

IN that home the lamp had been lighted for the evening, and the mother and daughter sat in silence at their work, for the timid efforts of poor Jenny at conversation had been ne...

‘OH, mother, I’m glad you’ve come,’ Annie’s voice was crying to her--she could hear her child’s voice, though she could not see her face--‘I want you to send away all these wome...

YES, there he sat, there could be no doubt about it--he sat in his wooden chair upon one side of the hearth, a wan, blear-eyed, crouching, shivering specimen, too visibly in a c...

THE chimes of the cathedral had just announced the hour of six when the train left the station, and passing the tall chimneys which were overshadowed by the cathedral towers ste...

WHILST Nat lay alone in the dark church the lamp had been lighted for the evening in his home, and in the room with yellow rafters Tim sat by Annie’s side. It was the first time...

‘IF you please, sir,’ said Jenny, and, as she spoke, she courtseyed again, ‘if it’s so as ye are Mr Lee I have come to speak with ye. I’ve been speakin’ to this gentleman as the...

ON the night succeeding that of her visit to the Farm Jenny was returning from Lindum after darkness had fallen. It was New Year’s Eve, a dark night, the moon had not risen; and...

IF there were any truth in the oft-repeated assertion that Mrs Salter was very ‘proud and high,’ and that the reason of her preference for solitude lay rather in a sense of supe...

THE August sunshine of a brilliant afternoon was shining upon the yard of the Manor Farm when Mr James Gillan came out from the house, and mounted the horse that the yard-boy he...

THE white sun was sinking lower in the west, above the valley at the foot of Lindum hill, when Mr Lee rose from his chair in his private apartment to welcome the nephew who was...

THE cottage near the Thackbusk was closed to visitors--Jenny said that her daughter was ill, and must be quiet. The statement was supposed to be intended as a protection against...

BUT, meanwhile, the village had recovered from its wonder to become aware of a deeper mystery, and its astonishment and gossip had only subsided to give place in their turn to a...

AND, whilst poor Jenny was pursuing her lonely way through the darkness, one whom she deemed her enemy was in a very different case--Miss Tina Gillan, at that moment dressing fo...

YES--she was gone--there could be no doubt about it--there was no room for hope, no chance of some mistake--the scrap of paper, with its single word ‘Good-bye,’ contained enough...