Just a girl

The Australian winter had passed, the spring was smiling with strict impartiality on Three Star and Dog’s Ear alike, and the heavy rains had swollen the stream beside which Norm...

Esmeralda at lunch recounted her adventure to Lady Wyndover, telling it in the most casual way, and she was much surprised and puzzled when her ladyship almost dropped her knife...

Esmeralda went to her room that night with her head throbbing and her heart aching. The sight of Trafford bending over Lady Ada at the piano had almost driven her mad; it had ma...

Three Star Camp was not exactly the place in which a tender parent or a careful guardian would have chosen to bring up a child, though it was no better and no worse than any oth...

Norman found his mother very ill. The doctor did not forbid all hope; but a crisis was approaching. They could only wait. Norman was very fond of his mother, and greatly upset,...

Esmeralda passed into the drawing-room, and left Trafford standing behind the bank of ferns. He had entered the fernery almost immediately after she had done so, and had been go...

“Good gracious, is that all!” remarked Lady Wyndover. “He might have waited until after the ceremony, I should think. But that is just like Lord Trafford. He thinks there is no...

Esmeralda’s beauty took him by surprise. He had expected to see--well, if he had been asked what he had expected to see, he would have found it difficult to answer: something ro...

Esmeralda went to her own room. She seemed in a dream. Every word Trafford had spoken came back to her; the touch of his hand was still with her. She felt happy, and yet--and ye...

Now, Trafford would have liked to have remained, and, indeed, have settled, at Three Star; for the greatest happiness of his life had come to him there, and it was there that he...

Madame Cerise was urged to the point of distraction. She was given _carte blanche_ in the matter of the bridal robe, which Lady Wyndover intended should surpass anything that ha...

The next day Trafford rigged up an apology for a tent under that tree, and dwelt there while the doctor was carrying on the grim fight with Death in the hut.

As the bullet crashed through the lamp, and it fell to the ground, the whole scene was plunged in darkness. Varley reached up for Esmeralda, calling for her, but before he could...

Lady Ada and Esmeralda seated themselves on a lounge within view of the room, and Esmeralda looked openly at the exquisite woman beside her. Not only openly, but with frank admi...

Trafford went straight from Eaton Square to his club. He had had the worst quarter of an hour in his life, and felt extremely unhappy, and as if he were a brute and a monster of...

She heard him pass through the Lilliputian hall, and down the garden path; heard the gate clang behind him, and at the sound a pang of pain shot through her.

Trafford started slightly, then smiled; he thought she was jesting; that, girl-like, she wanted him to ask the question again. He stood silent, and looking at her. Beauty unador...

The next day Trafford proposed a ride, and the mare Mr. Carter had chosen was brought round for Esmeralda. She was a splendid creature, and Esmeralda uttered an exclamation of d...

As Esmeralda rode along between her two captors, she felt that they were ascending one of the hills, and then that they were going down on the other side. Neither of the men spo...

Lord Trafford went down with Lord Selvaine to Belfayre next day. During the journey of a little over five hours Trafford was very thoughtful--he was never at any time very talka...

She was a pretty girl, with dark hair and complexion, but with soft, blue-gray eyes. She was short, and very small, so that she looked quite a school-girl, although she was in r...

By the time Trafford had recovered from the emotion which had produced the inaction of stupor, Esmeralda and Norman had ridden out of sight and sound. Trafford got into his sadd...

Esmeralda and Lord Norman Druce rode toward Three Star Camp. They went in slowly, because his leg was painful and he could scarcely move it; and as they went the young fellow se...

The saloon, a long and narrow room, built of rough, feather-edged boards and decorated with scraps of turkey-red cotton and cheap calico lining, with occasional portraits of loc...

Esmeralda, as she took off her jacket and hat, looked round Lady Wyndover’s dressing-room with amazed curiosity. She had never before been in or imagined such a room. Like Lady...

Esmeralda lay in her hammock slung in the shadow of the hut. It was a lovely evening with the day’s heat lingering in the air, and as she lay back, in perfect comfort, she could...

Yes, he had been right! She was here, and Norman was with her. His heart was torn with jealousy and rage--and love. For he loved her still. He had had time to think on the outwa...

“I have just been down to see if they are ready,” she said. “The carriage is at the door, and Lord Trafford is waiting-- What is the matter?” she broke off, as she saw Esmeralda...

Neither Varley nor any of the boys asked Esmeralda any further questions. The boys seemed to take it as quite a natural thing that she should come back to them and the camp, and...

Esmeralda did not again go to see Lord Norman. She did not even ask after him; and she listened to Mother Melinda’s daily report in silence, and without any comment; not even wh...

They went into the drawing-room. Lilias was seated in a low chair by the window, looking at the magnificent view. Lilias was at a piece of fancy-work which she sometimes affecte...

Esmeralda stood where he had left her as one stands after receiving a mortal blow, in a dull stupor too profound for pain. She sunk into a chair, and with her eyes fixed on the...

All was confusion at Belfayre, and it was not only Trafford who was stunned by the sudden shock. All men must die, and the duke was an old man; but he had seemed so well and str...

To Esmeralda, Belfayre was a Palace of Delight. It was not so much the magnificence, the luxury and regal splendor of the place, nor its vastness which gave her so much pleasure...

“She was not alone,” he said. “Mother Melinda was with her. They can both use a revolver as well as you or I. Esmeralda is a dead shot.” He glanced at the weapons on the wall of...

Esmeralda started, and her hand closed tightly over her fan. This gentleman, who had thanked her so fervently in the park, this nephew of Lord Selvaine’s, was the “Trafford” of...

Esmeralda waited. She was startled, but not frightened; she did not forget that the horses were under her care, and she held them firmly, and looked straight between their ears....

The excitement attending their arrival had brought a flush to Esmeralda’s face, and no one excepting Norman noticed the change in her, but it was remarked that Trafford looked p...

Esmeralda did not understand in the least. An ordinary girl, brought up in London society, would have grasped the whole thing and known that she was being married for her money....

Esmeralda was getting almost tired of being surprised, and she looked at the appointments of the room, the table, with its snowy damask and glass and silver, amidst which the ho...

“Not the pearl suite, nor the diamond suite, nor the emerald suite, nor any of them,” replied Esmeralda, firmly. “Stay; give me my Australian heart.” She caught sight of the loc...

As Esmeralda sunk unconscious against Trafford’s breast, a sharp cry of horror rose from Varley, and was echoed by Norman, who came up a moment or two afterward. The revolver dr...

She was startled and bewildered. It was the first time she had ever been made love to, for though no doubt every young man in the camp worshiped her, and would have gladly made...

It has been remarked more than once that truth is stranger than fiction; certainly no one, however highly imaginative, would have planned out a stranger and more improbable game...