Princess Puck

It was in March that Bill Alardy went to Ashelton. She was sent there “to grow up,” Polly said, and added some sceptical remarks with regard to both place and person. “Poor litt...

Theresa and Bella Waring were beauties when they came to Miss Brownlow’s seven years ago, well-educated, well-informed, used to the ways of society (of small professional societ...

It was September,--rich September, with warm lights and red shadows--when Bill went first to Haylands, Robert Morton’s farm. It was March when she went again; a grey afternoon,...

Nobody could make farming pay, at least no one about Wrugglesby. This was an axiom in the Ashelton district, which no one attempted to confute though each had an explanation for...

Theresa was a conscientious person, and really had Bill’s welfare at heart. Miss Brownlow said she exercised a good influence over her young cousin. Theresa was rather doubtful...

The parish church of Ashelton was very old. It was said in Miss Gruet’s selected history of the county to be of great antiquarian interest; but antiquaries did not abound in Ash...

It was an axiom of Polly’s that if you can’t be clever, you had better be a fool. This, needless to state, was first said in reference to Bill who, Polly considered, fell into t...

There can be no doubt that few things are so well concealed as the perfectly obvious, no course of conduct so little observed as that which is open to all observation. If Bill h...

The four roads which met at Sales Cross were the four which went everywhere in the district. “You can’t go anywhere without going by Sales Cross,” said Bella, basing her opinion...

Doubtless the ladies of Ashelton were right in saying that the song sung by Bill Alardy at Mrs. Dawson’s tea-party was most unsuitable and highly improper. It was not only the w...

Polly always declared she foresaw the end from the very beginning of the affair, and certainly at the outset of Miss Brownlow’s illness she prophesied fatal results; but then sh...

Bill, of course, knew nothing of what was in the rector’s mind; she only wondered once or twice about the song, and decided to sing it no more in public since the greater number...

Mr. James Brownlow was a busy man; a hard-working solicitor, partner in an old firm, and a good firm though scarcely a rich one. He was not rich himself; he had worked hard all...

Man is a triple development; call him, body, soul and spirit, or mind, matter and extension,--he is, however regarded, a trinity. A man who recognises his three natures (which f...

Mr. Wagnall was an antiquary, avowedly an antiquary. A man of means and leisure, he had ample time to devote to his subject, and so well had he devoted it that there was unknown...

It was now three weeks since the day when Gilchrist Harborough came to see Theresa and Polly, three weeks since they told Bill he loved her, almost three weeks since she found o...

“It is my belief,” said Miss Minchin to Miss Gruet, when the sultry days of August had reduced the two ladies to visiting one another in the cool of the evening only, “it’s my b...

At first the old rector had not known whether he hated or loved this grandchild of the dead past, this creature who was Wilhelmina, and Gipsy Alardy, and a score of other things...

Bella was not proud, neither was she exacting in any particular; but there are times when even the least proud is tried by his family. Bella was so tried on the day that she wen...

Kit Harborough paced the lane restlessly. The rain had ceased but he still wore his long mackintosh, and in one pocket the unsent telegram was crushed forgotten. For a moment he...

Polly may have been a clever woman, as Mr. James Brownlow had said she was, but in his catalogue of her abilities he omitted to mention her one great gift, her undeniable talent...

So Bill was packed off to Ashelton, and then Polly proceeded to settle things to her own complete satisfaction. She saw the house in Bayswater and settled that; she saw the pare...

Polly had no doubt done wisely in sending Bill to Ashelton while she herself was settling affairs at Wrugglesby. Not only was she thus freed from Bill’s interference, but also B...

Polly said it was quite unnecessary for Bill to go to old Mr. Harborough’s funeral, though the wish to do so showed a nice feeling on her part; and since she did wish it (and ha...

It is an old saying, and doubtless a good one, that two is company and three none; yet the presence of a third person who stands somewhat apart from the other two is frequently...

“Do come here for Christmas,” wrote Bella to Bill from Haylands about the middle of December. “You must come, if it is only for a week. It is nonsense for Polly to say she can’t...

It was towards the end of January that Bella came to town to finish buying her _trousseau_. A _trousseau_ is a really momentous affair, and Bella, feeling that the shops at Wrug...

The waiting-room of a railway-station is not usually selected as the best place in which to think seriously over a matter of perplexity. But if the waiting-room be attached to t...

It was in June that the accident happened, early June, but the season was warm that year and already the little white roses were in bloom. They were in bloom the year of Theresa...

Bella’s baby was born in January, and Theresa went to Greys’ for the event. Indeed she went there a good deal before the event, for, if the truth must be known, life in London w...

In the opinion of certain members of the Chancery bar the conclusion of the Harborough case was disappointing, for from a legal point of view, there was no conclusion. In spite...