Sawn Off: A Tale of a Family Tree

"Hi! don't, Very. Let me breathe," cried Doctor Salado, removing a very pretty little hand from over his mouth, and kissing the owner, as pretty a little girl as ever stepped; t...

"How dare you, sir! how dare you!" cried Lord Pinemount. "Don't dictate to me. I've put up with too much, and I mean to end it all. How dare he--a confounded Yankee!"

"Granted, pet. Some one in the village thinks it's a paltry thing to do, and has constituted himself our champion. Confound his insolence! What did he say in his letter?"

About a couple of hours later the Doctor was down in his garden with a large note-book in his hand, a pen behind his ear, and an exciseman's ink-bottle suspended by a piece of s...

"Eh, Miss 'Ronica, but the master ought to ha' been a lord!" said old Thomas some days later, as he was nailing up some loose strands of clematis against the house; and he stopp...

Lord Pinemount was seated in his library, biting his nails mentally, as he lay back in his easy chair glaring at his steward, who stood before him wishing he could get another p...

"Back again so soon, Mr Rolleston?" said the Doctor, as Denis presented himself before the father and daughter; Veronica having risen from her seat and laid her hand upon her fa...

"Take the good the gods provide you," seemed to be Denis Rolleston's motto, for he was very happy with Veronica, while the Doctor made off across the park, gave the bell at the...

This legend was written in yellow letters, shaded with blue, upon an oval red board. Red, blue, and yellow form a pleasing combination to some eyes; but when the yellow is drab,...

"Eh? What? Yes, it is me, you rough, ill-mannered cub. Tom Fraser, if you were my son, hang it, sir, I'd thrash you, sir--trying to knock down a respectable wayfarer who is gett...

"Well, if it don't, mother, it don't--that's all; but what I say is, blood is thicker than water, or else old Uncle Eb--as I never see, only heard o--wouldn't have said he'd sen...

"Now he's put out," said Dick, looking puzzled at his wife. "I did not mean to upset him; but a man can't lend another man what he hasn't got, can he, mother?" There was no answ...

Maximilian Shingle was a heavy, broad-faced man, very cleanly shaven, and with grey hair very smoothly brushed. His black suit was as glossy as a first-class undertakers, and he...

The offices of Maximilian Shingle were on the first-floor, in a narrow turning close to the Royal Exchange; and, though they were dark and inconvenient, they were handsomely fur...

Jessie, who looked very pale and red-eyed, as if with weeping, went behind her father's chair, took hold of his ears playfully, and pulled them, while he drew one hand before hi...

"Ah! I don't know--I don't know," said the old fellow. "There's a deal of trickery in the world. If it's a good one, then, Dick, and you did come by it honestly, you'll lend me...

Max Shingle lived in the unfashionable district of Pentonville; but he had a goodly house there, and well furnished, at the head of a square of little residences that some ingen...

Richard Shingle was seated in his study--his own special room, tabooed, as he said, to every one but the specials--the specials being those whom he admitted. The place had a gay...

As he spoke, Mr Fred Fraser, elaborately dressed, walked into the room, a pull at the bell sounding through the house as he made his salutations, and, in a light and airy way, b...

"Hey? Drown yourself? Well, don't go to do it on an empty stomach. I knew a man once who tried it, and he did nothing but float. Come home with me, and have a bit of dinner first."

Several weeks passed. Jessie seemed to have received a serious shock from the encounter that had taken place at her father's house; and for days together she would be depressed,...

"Bosh! I shall be off," said Fred, flippantly; and, as he spoke, he made for the head of the staircase, not noticing that a movement had bee made in that direction by the privat...

"`I cannot forgive myself,'" wrote Tom to Richard Shingle--and the latter read the note aloud--"`I feel, uncle, that I have wronged her twice in thought most cruelly, and that I...

With the speed of the special train the excitement seemed to increase; but, for a time, Tom's attention was taken up by the stations they passed, and he tried hard to recall the...

One morning, when the sun was making the sea shimmer and glisten like so much frosted silver in constant motion, Tom Fraser awoke, calm and placid, after a long, burning time of...