Lady Cassandra

Mrs Mallison was one of the kindest of women; she was also one of the most exasperating. She herself was complacently aware of the first fact, and referred to it frequently in c...

Cassandra Raynor stood on the terrace of her great house, looking over the sweep of country stretching to right and left, and in her heart was the deadliest of all weariness,--t...

During the next two days Grizel was haunted by a prevision of danger. She rose with it in the morning, carried it in her heart all day, was pursued by it in her dreams. On the s...

Now that Lent was over dinner parties came on with a rush, started, as was only discreet, with a state gathering at the Court, when the county was invited to welcome the bride....

Mrs Evans's departure gave the start to what was virtually a general stampede. As one woman rose to make her adieux, another hastily joined her, offering a seat in a carriage, o...

By noon next day all Chumley was ringing with the story of Grizel Beverley's first dinner party, for each feminine guest, anxious to have the privilege of telling the news, had...

The bulb party pursued its inevitable course. The guests arrived in little groups of three and and four, entered the house at the front and made their painful way along highly p...

By nine o'clock in the evening the Swedish masseur had arrived, and begun his manipulations. He promised that his patient should walk by the end of five or six days, and at the...

Mrs Mallison possessed an insatiable curiosity. Its area, it is true, covered but a few square miles of country, for everything that happened outside Chumley was powerless to st...

It was late on the following morning when Teresa, sitting over her embroidery in the garden, saw Dane Peignton making his way towards her across the lawn. It was his first appea...

The next day Cassandra was still confined to bed. Grizel said that it would probably be some time before she was able to be about, and announced her own intention of acting as n...

Driving home in the car Cassandra was conscious of contending emotions which carried her back to nursery days; pleasure, excitement, an underlying gnawing of guilt. So had she f...

He had received one or two post-card bulletins from Grizel, and knew that the shock of the accident had left no lasting effect on Cassandra, but it was not until the morning of...

It was the afternoon of Grizel Beverley's first "At Home" celebration. The drawing-room had been made ready for the occasion with the aid of what seemed to Martin a very army of...

Marten Beverley and his wife Grizel confronted each other across the breakfast table. Only the night before they had returned from a protracted, wedding tour, to take possession...

The news of Teresa Mallison's engagement provided Chumley with an excitement which was shared equally by every section of the community. Tradesmen discussed it with their assist...

Cassandra lifted her head and stared blankly, then with cold displeasure, into the intruder's face. There was not the faintest tinge of embarrassment in her mien, nothing but su...

Teresa's attack of bronchitis kept her on the sick list for several weeks, and it was not until she was able to go about the house as usual, that Mary found an opportunity for e...

The house at Gled Bay was situated at some distance from the cliff, which was the spot most desired by its female tenants, but at the very gates of the golf links, which present...

"Then we must have roast fowl! Roast fowl, I've discovered, is the fatted calf of the middle classes. Whenever I tell Cook that a friend is coming, she says: `A fowl, I suppose,...

For the rest of the afternoon the house was still as the grave, each member of the little party preserving a rigorous silence for the sake of those others who were presumably as...

The room was empty, and Mary stood upon the threshold looking round the familiar scene, which seemed so strangely altered by her year's absence. The blinds were drawn, but even...

Dane awoke next morning to face a long and difficult day. Idle hours are proverbially dedicated to temptation, and despite many resolutions his thoughts drifted continually towa...

Cassandra returned home to fight her battle hour after hour with weary reiteration. In her mind was one predominating determination,--to be loyal to the son she had borne, and t...

The Squire heard the news of Peignton's engagement at the County Club, and carried it to his wife on his return to lunch. He found Cassandra on the terrace, where she had spent...

"I should like," announced Grizel to Martin over the breakfast table, "I should like to publish an apology, illuminated and framed, dedicated to middle-class house-mistresses, t...

Teresa entered the quiet house, cast a look at the drawing-room door, and realised with relief that her mother had retired to bed. Probably she would be awake, and would expect...

The old Mater was not unconscious. The mysterious physical lightning had smitten the left side of the body, left a drawn, disfigured face, and a helpless arm and leg, but the sp...

It was a pretty sight to see Cassandra Raynor play bridge. When dummy fell to her turn, she had a trick of stretching out her right hand, and softly tapping the table, during a...

Three months was the shortest interval which could respectably elapse between a funeral and a wedding: three months, taken in conjunction with the date of half-yearly sales, was...

Mary spent a week in the London hotel, the longest week she had ever known. She rose late, and went to bed early, nevertheless the days stretched to an interminable length, and...

It was a spring morning, a year from the day when Mary Mallison had left home, and the remaining three members of the family at the Cottage were seated round the breakfast table...

Grizel came slowly down the long, straight path leading from the convent to the orchard wall, which marked the boundary of the grounds. It was a high wall rising some eight or t...