Lady Rosamond's book

I SUPPOSE I had better begin by telling how I came by this book, though that is not the beginning either, but perhaps it will do as well as any other to start from. Dear Mother...

TO go on with my own life. One year ago my dear mother died, leaving us young ones to comfort my father, who sorely needed comfort, for he and mother were all in all to each oth...

A YEAR ago at this time I was at home, busily preparing flowers and wreaths for my sister's bridal, under dear mother's eye. I knew Alice wanted violets, and Dick and I went to...

THIS is the first time I have been able to write since my watching at our Lady's shrine, at which time I took such a chill and rheum as have kept me laid up ever since. Mother G...

FATHER FABIAN has set me to work, as he promised, and I like my task very much. I am translating into English the work of a German monk named Thomas à Kempis. The piece is calle...

I HAVE drawn my patterns and made a beginning, after practising the lace stitches on something else, and am really succeeding very well. I take two hours a day for that and two...

TO my great surprise, I myself was summoned to the Bishop's presence last evening. He was sitting in a great chair in the parlor, and received me graciously and kindly.

I HAVE heard some great news to-day, which is yet unknown to most of the household, though they must guess, of course, that something is going to happen, from seeing the prepara...

WE have finished all our work, though we had to call in more help. Mother Gertrude chose Sister Bonaventure and Sister Margaret, besides Sister Bridget, to do the washing and ir...

OUR great guests have come, and are safely settled, and her Grace is pleased to approve of her rooms, specially the one furnished with linen. She asked whose was the invention,...

A MOST disagreeable thing has chanced to me, but I hope no harm will come of it. I have done what seemed me best, and I suppose I might as well dismiss the matter from my mind,...

"So, Mistress Rosamond, you have well requited my good-nature. A fine lecture I have had from my mistress and your starched Lady Abbess! I am beholden to you for bringing me int...

THE Queen goes to-morrow, and I am right glad on't. Not that I have aught against her Grace. She has been a good mistress to me, and I have learned many things of Mistress Patie...

"How lonely they look," said I, as we were going round closing the shutters. "I suppose they will always be called, 'The Queen's Chambers,' after this; and will be looked on as...

WE have begun the general reformation which Mother Superior promised us. I suppose, like other storms, it will clear the air when all is done, but at present it raises a good de...

IT is a long time since I have touched this book, and many things have happened. Ours is now a sad household. Out of the twenty-three professed Sisters and novices who used to m...

AMICE, is sick—I don't know what ails her, but she has been growing thin and pale ever since the pestilence, and now she has been obliged to take to her bed. She does not suffer...

IT seems as if there were never more to be peace in this devoted house. Magdalen Jewell, the woman who lived at Grey Tor, the woman who nursed her neighbors all through the sick...

MAGDALEN JEWELL hath escaped, at the least she hath disappeared, and no one knows what has become of her. It seems impossible that she could have got out, as there are no means...

AMICE CROCKER, my dearest friend, is dead and buried—buried in a dishonored grave, by the poor lady who was prisoner in the Queen's room so long. She died a heretic, they say, w...

I LITTLE thought, a year ago, that another April would see me quietly at home in my father's house, and with such a companion—still less that I could be quite content in such a...

OUR people have come home, with a fine budget of news, to be sure. First the Pope hath sent a Cardinal named Campeggio, or some such name, to join with Cardinal Wolsey, in a com...

I HAVE really put on my dress, my Lady's gentlewoman, Mistress Warner, arranging it for me, which she did with many exclamations at the improvement in my appearance. I must need...

"Heyday, what lady have we here?" cried my father, cheerily. "Here, let me look at you. I must say she becomes her change of dress well, does she not, Harry?"

MY Lord and Lady have come, with all their train, and we have been up to the great house to pay our visit. Having never seen my Lady Stanton, I was naturally curious about her....

THE May games went off very well. We had all the usual sports—Robin Hood and Little John, Maid Marian and all the rest of them, and besides a Miracle play—the first ever seen in...

at Biddeford May games, and hearing that we were to have unusual festivities here, they sent a deputation hither, praying my Lord and my father to patronize them. The Prior also...

The next day after the May games, my mother, according to her promise, put into my hand Master Tyndale's New Testament, and with it a copy of the same in Latin—the Vulgate, as '...

The night before last was very dark and sultry, with thick, low hanging clouds, and a feeling of thunder in the air. The sea was calling loudly, and Dobby's Pool roaring in that...

I HAVE been called on to make a very solemn and awful decision—and I have made it. Some days ago my father sent for me into his room, and said to me:

MASTER HAWKINS, Harry's captain, hath been to see us. He's a rough sea dog, as my father says, but yet kind and good, as it seems to me, and with a clear, honest face that I fel...

"Penrose—Penrose—the name hath a familiar ring;" said my father, musingly, and then: "Bid him never mind his spatters, but bring him in. He must needs be sore wearied and wet to...

HERE we are, at this grim, sad old house, which yet hath a wonderful charm to me, maybe because it is my house. It seems such a surprising thing to call a house mine. We have be...

THIS morning, coming into the hall, I found Joyce quite in ecstasies over a pair of young choughs that Harry had got for her at the risk of his neck. Harry, who is usually very...

SAD news! A courier came from home last night with the mournful tidings that my Lord's little son seems to be failing fast, and begging us to hurry home as quickly as possible,...

HERE we are at home again, safe and sound, having made the journey in less than three days. The poor babe is alive, and that is all. My Lady is like a ghost so pale, wasted and...

THE dear babe is gone—he died on the morning of the thirteenth, and is buried in the churchyard of the Priory Church, where both families have a right. My Lady tries to keep up,...

THIS morning my father and mother called me to a conference. I knew my Lord had been with them, and went thinking of nothing more important then perhaps that my Lady desired me...

THE formalities are all arranged, and to-morrow I shall be a wedded wife. The matter has been hurried for Harry's sake, because he must sail so soon, and also because my Lord wi...

HERE am I, Rosamond Corbet no more, but Rosamond Stanton, a sober matron of a week's standing. After all we changed our plans at the last, and came on here the day but one after...

I HAVE been very busy ordering my house and my servants, by the help of Mrs. Warner, whom my mother has lent me till I shall be more at home. She is a great help by her experien...

I DON'T know that any one who loves me will ever see these lines, but stranger things have happened, and I will never give up while I live the hope of seeing my husband again. F...

WITH the other proofs of her care and kindness, my mother hath sent me a store of pens and paper, and I am minded to beguile my somewhat too abundant leisure, by setting down in...

IT was but the other day that in looking over my papers and books (for I am an old woman, and must needs be thinking of setting my house in such order as I would leave it), I ca...