Lucretia — Complete

I The Coronation II Love at First Sight III Early Training for an Upright Gentleman IV John Ardworth V The Weavers and the Woof VI The Lawyer and the Body-snatcher VII The Rape...

One July evening, at the commencement of the present century, several persons were somewhat picturesquely grouped along an old-fashioned terrace which skirted the garden-side of...

When Lucretia first came to the house of Sir Miles St. John she was an infant about four years old. The baronet then lived principally in London, with occasional visits rather t...

The next day Sir Miles did not appear at breakfast,--not that he was unwell, but that he meditated holding certain audiences, and on such occasions the good old gentleman liked...

Three weeks afterwards, the life at Laughton seemed restored to the cheerful and somewhat monotonous tranquillity of its course, before chafed and disturbed by the recent interr...

The Provencal took the letter from his son’s hand, and looked at him with an approbation half-complacent, half-ironical. “Mon fils!” said he, patting the boy’s head gently, “why...

The next day, or rather the next evening, Sir Miles St. John was seated before his unshared chicken,--seated alone, and vaguely surprised at himself, in a large, comfortable roo...

It is somewhat less than three months after the death of Sir Miles St. John; November reigns in London. And “reigns” seems scarcely a metaphorical expression as applied to the s...

Dalibard had undertaken to get Lucretia from the house,--in fact, her approaching marriage rendered necessary a communication with Mr. Parchmount, as executor to her uncle’s wil...

When Mr. Fielden returned home, Lucretia had quitted the house. She left a line for him in her usual bold, clear handwriting, referring him to his wife for explanation of the re...

A painter stood at work at the easel, his human model before him. He was employed on a nymph,--the Nymph Galatea. The subject had been taken before by Salvator, whose genius fou...

The 8th of September, 1831, was a holiday in London. William the Fourth received the crown of his ancestors in that mighty church in which the most impressive monitors to human...

Suddenly across the gaze of Percival St. John there flashed a face that woke him from his abstraction, as a light awakes the sleeper. It was as a recognition of something seen d...

Percival St. John had been brought up at home under the eye of his mother and the care of an excellent man who had been tutor to himself and his brothers. The tutor was not much...

At noon the next day Beck, restored to his grandeur, was at the helm of his state; Percival was vainly trying to be amused by the talk of two or three loungers who did him the h...

“And what,” said Varney,--“what, while we are pursuing a fancied clew, and seeking to provide first a name, and then a fortune for this young lawyer,--what steps have you really...

That same evening Beck, according to appointment, met Percival and showed him the dreary-looking house which held the fair stranger who had so attracted his youthful fancy. And...

That Mr. Grabman slept calmly that night is probable enough, for his gin-bottle was empty the next morning; and it was with eyes more than usually heavy that he dozily followed...

Having once ascertained the house in which Helen lived, it was no difficult matter for St. John to learn the name of the guardian whom Beck had supposed to be her mother. No com...

And from that day Percival had his privileged entry into Madame Dalibard’s house. The little narrative of the circumstances connected with his first meeting with Helen, partly d...

The progress of affection between natures like those of Percival and Helen, favoured by free and constant intercourse, was naturally rapid. It was scarcely five weeks from the d...

During this conference between these execrable and ravening birds of night and prey, Helen and her boy-lover were thus conversing in the garden; while the autumn sun--for it was...

Percival was unusually gloomy and abstracted in his way to town that day, though Varney was his companion, and in the full play of those animal spirits which he owed to his unri...

Despite the lateness of the hour before he got to rest, Percival had already breakfasted, when his valet informed him, with raised, supercilious eyebrows, that an uncommon ragge...

Early in the forenoon a parcel was brought to Madame Dalibard which contained Ardworth’s already famous book, a goodly assortment of extracts from the newspapers thereon, and th...

On following Beck into the room she rented, Percival was greatly surprised to find, seated comfortably on the only chair to be seen, no less a person than the worthy Mrs. Mivers...

That day, when he called at Brompton, Percival reported to Madame Dalibard his interview with the eccentric Mr. Tomkins. Lucretia seemed chafed and disconcerted by the inquiries...

And how, O Poet of the sad belief, and eloquence “like ebony, at once dark and splendid [It was said of Tertullian that ‘his style was like ebony, dark and splendid’],” how coul...

We have now arrived at that stage in this history when it is necessary to look back on the interval in Lucretia’s life,--between the death of Dalibard, and her reintroduction in...

The lackeys in their dress liveries stood at the porch of Laughton as the postilions drove rapidly along the road, sweeping through venerable groves, tinged with the hues of aut...

One day, at the hour of noon, the court boasting the tall residence of Mr. Grabman was startled from the quiet usually reigning there at broad daylight by the appearance of two...

Under the cedar-trees at Laughton sat that accursed and abhorrent being who sat there, young, impassioned, hopeful, as Lucretia Clavering,--under the old cedar-trees, which, sav...

When Beck woke the next morning, and gradually recalled all that had so startled and appalled him the previous night, the grateful creature felt, less by the process of reason t...

The following morning was indeed eventful to the family at Laughton; and as if conscious of what it brought forth, it rose dreary and sunless. One heavy mist covered all the lan...

The reader will doubtless have observed the consummate art with which the poisoner had hitherto advanced upon her prey. The design conceived from afar, and executed with elabora...

Towards the afternoon of the following day, an elderly gentleman was seated in the coffee-room of an hotel at Southampton, engaged in writing a letter, while the waiter in atten...

Meanwhile at Laughton there was confusion and alarm. Helen had found herself more than usually unwell in the morning; towards noon, the maid who attended her informed Madame Dal...

It seemed as if now, when danger became most imminent and present, that that very danger served to restore to Lucretia Dalibard her faculties, which during the earlier day had b...

Varney’s self-commune restored to him his constitutional audacity. He returned to Laughton towards the evening, and held a long conference with Greville. Fortunately for him, pe...