Tales of the uneasy

She would be no poorer, it was not that. She was an orphan, and all her mother had had came to her. That meant seventy thousand pounds, plate, linen and the freehold of a fine o...

His cool deferring of her invitation afforded him just that touch of masterful self-assertiveness Everard had always lacked in his dealings with this young woman. She now firmly...

The nurse stared at her, and shrugged her shoulders. Poor girl! She was evidently one of the outwardly quiet ones, who smother the symptoms of disturbance, only to feel the shoc...

“It’s no good saying that now, Ma’am; I had to know. And it’s only a Nursing Home, not a private house, so I’ve done no harm. And”--the woman’s voice grew low and hoarse--“nobod...

“Yes, and Julia lost him and I got him. She called him her boy and her baby! He even told me so, saying how nice it was of her. Quite sincere! He thought so, I daresay. I knew b...

Though she pitied Mabel for her age, her plainness, she could not help feeling a little angry with Mabel for having presumed to marry Sir Hilary; she should not have allowed Hil...

He signed to the two women to withdraw, and followed them out into the passage. “Go and get something to eat,” he said peremptorily, “while you can. We shall have trouble with h...

“Well, we sat there together for quite an hour, then the clock of Chelsea church struck eleven, and she got up and said ‘Good-bye,’ holding out her hand quite naturally, as if o...

“Was what useless? Yes, as I was telling you, I go as one in a dream--a bad, bad dream, like the dreams I used to have when I overworked at college. I was brilliant, Alice, bril...

“It’s iniquitous!” exclaimed the man in grey, turning round from the window--his eyes wet, “to leave them behind like that without a word of inquiry, when it’s our conveyance ha...

“The book says: ‘The ancient family of Daunet, who beareth sable gultie, argent and a canton ermine.…’ Yes, Guy Daunet’s tomb is in the church at Redmire--remember it?--His feet...

“Yes, but this one’s on the wrong side of the blanket. He’s not over quick, but he’ll answer a civil question, no doubt. Now then!” She took Charles Daunet roughly by the wounde...

We laid Mary on the stone-flagged kitchen floor, while Sally fumbled with the latch of the wash-house. There was a door out of that into the back yard, and thence into a little...

I said nothing on purpose, so as not to put her back up. She stood staring at me, waiting for me to say something. I was so long, she began to shake in the cold.… And Sally neve...

“Whatten hole? Whatten wall? Whatten rubbish is the child talking about?” she said carelessly, brushing the loose straws off his jacket with strong sideway pats, and leading him...

“Even then, she or you would probably have none of these fine feelings at the moment. She has suffered physically; she is irresponsible: mere brutal selfish instinct dominates h...

Ensor, to call her attention to his protests, punctuated his remarks at intervals with, “My dear Mrs.----” She took no notice, and if she heard, did not care to supply the name....

Though Adelaide and he had met first on the common ground of their philoprogenitive instinct, Ensor had come to suspect that his own was the truer development of it. Adelaide ad...

He stooped and kissed her, full of premature paternal emotion. Adelaide was supposed to be not quite so well to-day. She was lying on the famous tiger-skin that he had given her...

He did not care to affront such scenes as he had gone through at Beverley any more, and he took his name off the Committee. He stayed at home and spent this dreary, uneventful t...

They had come into the great, wide, lightly-papered, spare bedroom, with three tall windows looking out over the grey gravel sweep in front of the house. The windows were wide o...