Mortal Coils

"Thank you," said Mr. Hutton, without turning round. Janet Spence's parlourmaid was so ugly--ugly on purpose, it always seemed to him, malignantly, criminally ugly--that he coul...

"Libbard doesn't take so gloomy a view of poor Emily's health." Mr. Hutton held open the gate that led from the garden into the drive; Miss Spence's car was standing by the fron...

Spode tiptoed round the room, peering with astonishment at all the objects in glass, in gilded bronze, in china, in leathers, in embroidered and painted silk, in beads, in wax,...

"All right, father." She moved towards the door without turning round to answer him. He was always terribly tiresome about mosquito nets. Once they had driven through the Campag...

He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and opened it; not without reluctance. He hated letters; they always contained something unpleasant--nowadays, since his second marriage....

(LUCREZIA GRATTAROL _has come out of the hotel just in time to overhear Miss Toomis's last remark, just in time to see her walk slowly away with a hand on_ SIDNEY DOLPHIN's _arm...

Mr. Tillotson looked down complacently at his shirt front. "Ah, you've noticed my Order. It's a long time since I wore that. It was given me by the Grand Porte, you know, for se...

"They jar a little," said Mr. Topes when they were out of earshot--"they jar on the time, on the place, on the emotion. They haven't the innocence for this ... this...."--he wri...

PAUL. You have no idea, Miss Toomis, how difficult it is for a man of truly noble feelings to get over the fact of your great wealth. When I heard that you were the possessor of...

"Good! Then I can get on with my story. The days pass and the first hilarity of convalescence fades away. The young man remembers and grows sullen; his strength comes back to hi...