Nobody's fault

“Play!” “Forty-love!” “Vantage all!” came shrilly from the tennis court. On a side grass-plot, whose trampled, badly kept turf bore witness to the violence of the game, rounders...

On the day Bridget left school, Mrs. Ruan sat in the drawing-room, with her sister, Mrs. Wainright, a plump, middle-aged woman, who had married a small farmer and lived at Sidfo...

The Jenkins party was at its height. The plush-covered chairs were all pushed back against the wall, leaving a sea of crimson carpet exposed, in the midst of which, like a solit...

“Well, what about your dresses, will they do? They’re grand folks, I suppose, plenty of money, ’aven’t they? Pa, Bid will want a few things. You’d better give ’er some money.”

It was Saturday morning. Bridget was awakened by the sound of the rain beating heavily against the windows of her room. From where she lay she could see a neglected slip of back...

Sunday was another pouring day. Bridget spent it in solitude. By the time evening came, she was desperate enough to put on her waterproof, and go to the nearest church for the s...

On the following Monday, Bridget woke with something of the delightful childish feeling that there was a treat in store. All the time she was dressing, she sang to herself softl...

“I can’t think how ever you came to stop away so long, old man! I should have gone mad; but then I’m like poor old Ortheris when I’ve been out of London six months,--‘sick fer t...

It was striking twelve when Bridget and her husband reached home. She pushed open a door on the left of the hall, and touched the button of the electric light. The fire was stil...

The Mansfields’ little flat in College Street had great attraction for Carey. There was an air of restful quiet about its daintily furnished drawing-room, which appealed strongl...

A telegram, the day after Bridget left her husband’s house, prepared Mrs. Ruan for her daughter’s arrival. She sat waiting for her in the drawing-room in the afternoon, in a flu...

Bridget arrived at the flat in College Street one evening, a week after her visit to Rilchester. She was pale and thin, Helen noticed, as she helped her lay aside her wraps in h...

electric light, that had a trick of going out suddenly. I don’t want the experience twice over,” she went on, shuddering. “I pray Heaven I may never have it. I’ve been talking t...

The winter wore on, and Bridget remained with the Mansfields. Every attempt on her side to urge that she ought to take rooms was met by determined opposition on the part of her...

Spring was early, and very gracious, the year of Helen’s marriage. Day after day warm sunshine lighted up the little square where the lilacs and hawthorns were budding, and the...

The Trelawneys spent their honeymoon in Paris; and since June, they had been stopping at a little village on the coast of Normandy, which several of Jim’s artist friends had als...

Carey walked across the wide, sunny fields next day in the direction of the Café des Sapins. He had driven as far as the village next to St. Marguerite, and had decided to walk...