Suffered in vain

Always more or less subdued in tone and tranquil of aspect, the eminently genteel Square of Porchester is, perhaps, seen in its most benign mood in the gently falling shadows of...

The midday sun made an abortive effort to struggle down between the tall rows of houses on either side of busy, hurrying Alderman’s Lane, glinting here and glancing there, showe...

The sun, that was shut out by towering walls from the busy city, like some intrusive idler, was lying, half-slumbrously, like some magnificent Eastern slave arrayed in jewels an...

It was evident that Captain Desfrayne would not take the initiative, so Frank Amberley was obliged to explain--more to Lady Quaintree than to her protégée--that Miss Turquand ha...

Lady Quaintree had hoped to glean a little more information from the two gentlemen, for she was as much excited as if she herself had been the inheritrix of the eccentric old ma...

“You are surprised to see me here to-night, Mimi,” Paul Desfrayne said, using an old childish pet-name that always disarmed his mother. “I came here with a friend to see Lady Qu...

Mrs. Desfrayne then went up-stairs unattended--an arrangement not at all to her liking, for she would fain still retain all the airs and customs of a beauty yet in the heyday of...

“I should not have let him wait, sir,” the man added apologetically, “only he said he had an appointment with you for to-day, and seemed so dreadfully disappointed because he di...

Captain Desfrayne selected a paper, and slowly turned over the pages as he cut them. Some time elapsed before he spoke; for he could not exactly frame words in which to put the...

Mrs. Desfrayne felt much as Alnaschar is described to have felt when he found his radiant visions at an end. She had built up a perfect Aladdin’s Palace of bright and fairy enjo...

Lady Quaintree did not let excitement interfere with her usual plans and daily arrangements. She had settled that they should go on Saturday--the day after that one so memorable...

There was a dead silence for a few seconds. The signs of emotion caused by the name of the friendless wretch who had sought his help were not lost upon Captain Desfrayne.

Rising to his feet, he strode backward and forward half a dozen times; then, pausing, he leaned his folded arms on the back of the low, carved chair into which he had at first t...

startled awake by the fancy that I am again going through it. I wonder, after the successive shocks of those few weeks, that I now live to give you the miserable recital.”

“I hate him,” she said to herself, as she sank back into a dim corner in the first-class carriage as it rattled away from Charing Cross; “and I would kill him if I could, and if...

Lady Quaintree had taken a fancy into her head that she should like to see the old Hall which now owned Miss Lois Turquand as proprietress. Therefore, she carried off the young...

Flore Hall was naturally a quiet, silent place, for it had rarely been favored by the presence of its owners since the days when it had passed from the hands of Squire Rashleigh...

Having been escorted over the house, she was too fatigued to go into the grounds, and, as Lady Quaintree was not sorry for an excuse to rest, the two matrons subsided into a ple...

With a heart as heavy as lead, Paul Desfrayne turned back to rejoin the two girls, when he had ascertained that, though trembling a little from nervous fright, his horse, Greybu...

The peace and purity of the night indisposed Lois to talk, and Blanche was meditating on how far the proprieties might admit of her sounding her new friend on the subject of the...

It was with difficulty Gilardoni could curb his impatient desire for his master’s return. Could he by any possibility have imagined in which direction to seek for him, he would...

Had the earth yawned suddenly open at his feet, Paul Desfrayne could not have expressed more utter amazement than was depicted in his face and in his entire attitude on hearing...

“On my return to our native village, after an absence of some two months,” continued Gilardoni, “I found that the priest, Lucia’s brother, had departed. His successor--a strange...

Her ladyship noted, while apparently trying to master a refractory button on her glove, that the rose tint on Lois’ cheeks deepened, and then flowed over the rest of her face, w...

The young lawyer did not find himself in an agreeable position. In the secret depths of his heart he would have infinitely preferred that Paul Desfrayne should remain bound. So...

He had not dared to stay to see his mother. It had been difficult and bitter enough to tell her the fatal secret of his unhappy marriage. To let her know the deeper humiliation...

Ignorant, ungovernable in her temper, resentful when any one crossed her path, or tried to hinder her from following her own fancies, she was at once resolute in planning scheme...

As he passed the door on which appeared the name of Mr. Willis Joyner--the back room on the first floor--the dapper figure and pleasant face of that gentleman appeared on the th...

She shuddered as she fancied she might be seized with fever, and lose her wits, perhaps, and betray in her wanderings the crime of which she had been guilty within these past tw...

She had never seen this handsome young man with the dark, grave, penetrating eyes before, to her knowledge; yet he looked at her as if he would read her very soul.

As Madam Guiscardini’s servants stood gaping in amazement and affright at the scene before them, Frank Amberley felt he had need to exercise all the coolness and address left hi...

The inquest was held on her ill-fated husband about the hour when Frank Amberley discovered the record of that most miserable union that had caused his death. The inquiry was ne...

“It is almost a pity not to let her sleep as long as she may,” thought the maid, as she stood by her, looking down at the flushed face and uneasy attitude of her slumbering mist...

The prince was waiting impatiently the arrival of Lucia at the Russian embassy. A tall, graceful man, some fifteen years older than his bride, with a somber yet gentle face, jet...

Lord and Lady Quaintree were at Eastbourne, with the Honorable Gerald and “the two girls,” as Lois and Blanche were affectionately designated. Frank Amberley had come to spend h...