Sydney Lisle, the Heiress of St. Quentin

“We are going to wait, of course,” she explained, “till Hugh is earning rather more, and in the meantime I am going to be so busy. I shall learn cooking and housekeeping and eve...

On the morning following the expedition to Donisbro’, Lady Frederica received an apologetic note from Herr Felsbaden, Sydney’s music-master, regretting his inability to give Mis...

“What a lot of times I seem to have said ‘Merry Christmas’ this afternoon!” Sydney remarked as she and Miss Osric went round the village in Sydney’s little pony carriage with th...

“Cousin St. Quentin,” Sydney said, coming straight into the library, “I want to tell you that I saw and spoke to Hugh to-day. You must forgive me, please, this time—I won’t again.”

“What abominable weather! St. Quentin hardly thought you would bring the child, and has been abominably fidgety all day in consequence. You must both be frozen! Come to the fire!”

A sleety rain was falling, but, despite the cold, St. Quentin’s couch was drawn up close beneath the mullioned windows of the library, from which he could look out upon the gree...

The train lamps had been lit two hours ago, and cast a vivid, unshaded light upon a comfortable first-class railway carriage, with its well-stuffed seats, well-covered floors, a...

Father had been speaking, but he was silent now, standing with his face turned towards the shuttered windows. On the floor knelt Sydney, her head on mother’s knee. She was not c...

It fell softly through the shading blinds upon the dainty fittings of her luxurious room, and on Ward, as she stood beside her with a tray, containing a fairy-like tea-set for one.

He announced that he had come to spend Christmas, much to the relief of Lady Frederica, who declared it would be “such a comfort to have somebody to amuse St. Quentin.” He himse...

A carriage was sent to meet the 4 o’clock train, and Sydney, in spite of an uncomfortably shy sensation at the bottom of her heart, begged leave to go and meet her governess.

“Miss Lisle has not a thing fit to wear, my lady,” had been Ward’s verdict, when Lady Frederica made inquiries into the state of Sydney’s wardrobe, and Lady Frederica’s own dres...

“Fever epidemic in Blankshire. Medical help urgently required. The villages specially affected by the fever, are Loam, Hurstleigh, Marston, Styles, and Lislehurst—all on the est...

“Mrs. Sawyer says she will be proud and pleased to let us use her kitchen for nothing,” Sydney said, “but we must pay her for the fire. She doesn’t have one in the afternoons, a...

Hugh was looking rather excited, and his voice could not repress a certain eagerness, as he took the hand the marquess held out. St. Quentin could not help liking the look of th...

“This _is_ delightful!” Sydney cried, as she sat down beside the bright fire in the pretty bedroom near Katharine’s, which had been allotted to her at the Deanery. “It is quite...

The trim, box-edged garden beds were gay with spring flowers, and the air was full of the song of birds and of the faint, sweet, sleepy scent of the poplar.

Dr. Chichester flung the question suddenly into the deep silence which had fallen on himself and his son, as they sat together by the study fire on a cold night shortly after Ch...

“Sit down. I’ve a good mind to tell you a story which will make you understand—well, a good many things—among others what a contemptible cad I really am. It isn’t a particularly...

“No one should do the flowers but herself,” she declared, and Mackintosh groaned over the ravages she made in “his conservatories” and “his gardens.” But Miss Lisle was a privil...

A companion-governess was procured for Sydney, the daughter of the vicar of one of the churches near Donisbro’. The girl was unfeignedly delighted at the prospect of a companion...

Sounds of talk and laughter came from the brilliantly-lit dining-room, and the great hall, though empty still, was gay with flowers—great pots of chrysanthemums and arum lilies...

A rainy November afternoon was drawing to its close. The sun had set in a haze of fog, to which it gave a fleeting warmth of colour. The street lamps were lit, and chinks of lig...

A small army of workmen had appeared at Lislehurst, and the village folk were beginning to realise the incredible fact that their marquess did at length intend to do his duty by...

Hugh’s hero, the great surgeon who gave his services to the Blue-friars Hospital, had come down to see St. Quentin, and perform on him the operation which had saved the life of...

She thought of another letter she had written for him more than two months ago, but there was a considerable difference in the subject matter of that letter and to-day’s.

The air was full of the song of birds and the hum of bees, and of another sound to which Sydney Lisle was listening, as she stood upon the steps of the Castle, shading eyes that...

Then there came a time when she seemed to herself to be all alone in a dark place where no one came to her, though she cried continually for mother, and was certain that if only...