Modern Broods; Or, Developments Unlooked For

THE scene was a drawing-room, with old-fashioned heavy sash windows opening on a narrow brick-walled town-garden sloping down to a river, and neatly kept. The same might be said...

MAGDALEN PRESCOTT stood on her own little terrace. Her house was, like many Devonian ones, built high on the slope of a steep hill, running down into a narrow valley, and her ab...

SUNDAY morning rose with new and bright hopes. The girls looked out at their window, and saw that it was a beautiful morning, and that the spring sunshine glowed upon the purple...

MRS. BEST departed early the next morning. It was probably a parting for life between the two old friends; and Magdalen keenly felt the severance from the one person whom she ha...

THE afternoon at Clipstone was a success. Gillian was at home, and every one found congeners. Lady Merrifield’s sister, Miss Mohun, pounced upon Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in...

THE deferred expedition to Rockquay also began, Magdalen driving Vera and Thekla. She was pleased with her visitors, and hoped that the girls would feel the same, but Vera began...

“Have we not all, amid earth’s petty strife, Some pure ideal of a nobler life? We lost it in the daily jar and fact, And now live idly in a vain regret.”

THE friendship with the Sisters was about three weeks old when, one morning, scaffold poles were being erected in the new side aisle of St. Kenelm’s Church, and superintending t...

AGATHA came home in due time, and Magdalen sent her sister to meet her at the station, where they found a merry Clipstone party in the waggonette waiting for Gillian, who was to...

THERE was a Guild at St. Kenelm’s which was considered by the promoters to be superior to the Girls’ Friendly Society, and which comprised about a dozen young women, who attende...

Vera had lingered about, fancying she was helping to pack the photographic apparatus, while the others dispersed. Presently, seeing no one near, Hubert Delrio said, in a gentle...

SOMETHING black was before the tossed boat! Yes, and light, not lightning. A human voice seemed to be on the blast. Hubert Delrio essayed to shout, but his voice was gone, or wa...

Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady Phyllis’ cabin, and that the proper owner was dressing herself in haste before the little shelf of a toilette table. So gr...

THE telegram had been received about mid-day; and Mr. Flight rushed up with it to the Goyle, just in time to prevent poor old Mr. Delrio from starting hopelessly home. It had su...

“MAN Friday hope piccaniny live well—bring her buckra fish from sea!” Such was the greeting from Lord Rotherwood to Thekla when the whole party walked over in time for tea on th...

MISS MOHUN and Miss Merrifield encountered Miss Prescott and Agatha among a perfect herd of cycles, making Bessie laugh over the recollections of the horror caused at Stokesley...

HUBERT DELRIO, pleased and gratified, but very shy, joined the ladies from the Goyle in their walk to Clipstone, expecting perhaps a good deal of stiffness and constraint, since...

THOSE were happy days that succeeded Vera’s engagement. It had made her more womanly, or at least less childish; and the intercourse with Hubert Delrio became an increasing deli...

“How happy by my mother’s side When some dear friend became a bride! To shine beyond the rest I was In gay embroidery drest. Vain of my drapery’s rich brocade, I held my flowing...

THE bracelet came to light in the gardens of Cliffe House the next morning, and Alexis White walked over to the Goyle to return it safely, little guessing, when he set forth to...

“It is in the way of business, but she will like it all the same. They want me to give a course of lectures on electricity at Bexley to the Institute and the two High Schools, a...

A TELEGRAM had been handed to Mr. Mayor, which he kept to himself, smiling over it, and he—at least—was not taken utterly by surprise at the sight of a tall handsome man, who st...

AN expedition to Minsterham finished the visit of Dolores and her faithful “Nag,” whose abilities as an assistant were highly appreciated, and who came home brilliantly happy to...

THERE was a good deal of worry and anxiety for some little time, while correspondence was going on about Henry Merrifield’s will, and in the meantime Angela decided to board wit...

THE early spring brought a new development. Thekla, who attended classes at the High School, came home with unmistakable tokens of measles, and Primrose did the same, in common...

THE visitation had not been confined to the High School. The little cheaply-built rows for workmen and fishermen had suffered much more severely, owing chiefly to the parents’ c...

NO sooner had the visitors departed than the others now out of quarantine appeared at Vale Leston. Angela was anxious to spend a little time there, and likewise to have Lena ove...

“She shall have her tea, and a good rest,” said Marilda; “and then I have asked her uncle and aunts to meet you at dinner, and Fernan hopes to bring home another old friend. Who...

ANGELA’S nearest and best friends had anticipated that the peaceful climax of all her cares would be a relief to her; and so indeed in the long run it would be to her higher sen...

A TELEGRAM that a steamer had been wrecked on the Maiden Rocks filled three homes with dismay. The rocks were sought out in maps, and found to be specks lying between County Ant...

NO tidings of Bernard and Angela. The suspense began to diminish into “wanhope” or despair; and the brothers and sisters continued to say that they were sorry above all for Phyl...

“Safe home, safe home in port, Rent cordage, shattered deck; Torn sails, provision short, And only not a wreck; But all the joy upon the shore, To tell our voyage the perils o’er!”

THE visit of the Bishop of Albertstown had, in fact, been deferred till he could quit his fellow-sufferers, especially Wilfred, who could not well be left to the charge of the t...