The captive singer

“Imagine any one brought up like Iris Dearn actually preferring Australia to London--it is as bad as liking briar-roses better than orchids!” And the speaker allowed her large d...

“He not only looks like a gentleman, I am sure he _is_ one,” replied her cousin, with slight emphasis, as she threw back the long streamers of her silver-grey veil which a light...

“My lamp has gone out--where is the guide?” cried a girlish voice excitedly, as she clutched at the wire rope acting as a protecting fence to prevent visitors slipping into the...

During the following days Miss Dearn and Rees did not meet. Somehow the girl managed that she and her cousin had their meals either before the driver came into the dining-room o...

“Wake up, dear,” said Mrs. Henderson the following morning, stooping and gently kissing her cousin’s white arm as it nestled against the coverlet, the dainty sleeve of muslin an...

During tea Mrs. Henderson watched the girl with pleasure. “Iris,” she said, “how splendid you are looking--I have never seen you look so well! This day in the open has done wond...

Iris Dearn and Rees were seated on a flat rocky ledge overlooking a tremendous precipice at the bottom of which flowed a gleaming, silvery stream. They were gazing across the go...

“Mother used to say that no girl had better chances of making a brilliant match than I; but I never could care for any of the men who counted, and now--” her tones grew soft and...

The evening was iridescent with gold, azure and lilac. The sun was low in the west, and the high, irregularly formed mountains looked as if they had been shapes of mauve laid so...

The same evening, on the wide, spotless deck of an ocean liner, sat Captain Barton, talking to a dashing brunette. She was dressed in a striking, low-cut yellow gown as conspicu...

Iris and Justin were together in the deserted old garden. They walked on the velvet grass amid a wilderness of flowers and fruit. There were great rosebushes covered with golden...

Iris looked at him with dazed, bewildered eyes, as if she had not understood what he had said; as if he had spoken in some unknown language. At last, part of the meaning of his...

The following afternoon Rees stood on the verandah looking sombrely towards the long high ridges of uncompromising mountains rising in clear undaunted beauty from behind the bro...

It was not difficult for Rees to carry out his resolution. Captain Barton wanted to see the sights and the ladies had to accompany him. He was not interested in caves, he prefer...

The following morning Rees came out of his room at dawn; he wore his riding suit, and, with a long look towards Iris’s door, made his way quietly out of the house. He walked a c...

The atmosphere was heavy with smoke and liquor odours. Behind the glass-filled counter stood the smiling, amiable barmaid, a shapely woman with auburn hair, powdered cheeks and...

It was five o’clock the following afternoon when Rees woke from his long, heavy sleep. He opened his eyes wearily, they felt so oddly weighted and a strange dull pain racked his...

Iris stood by the window in her room looking out on the sea-blue mountains with strangely glowing eyes and flushed cheeks. Her tense, nervous fingers held a letter which had bee...

Justin had been to see Turner, the old drunkard, and was on his way home the following evening, when he saw some one coming towards him in the soft, starlit darkness. His heart...

Captain Barton did not go to bed early that night. He strode up and down the road excitedly, smoking a big cigar. So this was what the Hon. Iris Dearn had come to, the girl he l...

Rees was galloping along the steep road leading to the mountains. He, who was generally so kind to animals, rushed the bay horse under him at a most unmerciful speed. But his wi...

He explained it all to her, and when he had finished he added: “But you must not be standing out here in the cold any longer. I must try to find a sheltered spot where you can r...

Captain Barton sat on the top of a ridge near the descending ravine, scanning the huge stretch of scenery before him with his excellent field-glasses. He had been smoking, but t...

When Justin came in to dinner that evening the ladies were already in the room, and he hurried to their table to inquire how Iris felt after her mountain experience. From the do...

After Rees had left the room Iris stood absolutely motionless by the fire, as if some magic spell was holding her. She was still there when Amy came up shortly afterwards to tel...

Iris sat beside Turner in his small, tidy cabin. The old drunkard was ill; he had sent for Rees, but as the driver was away Iris and her cousin had come instead, bringing with t...

The Earl of Strathfell’s luxurious limousine had just stopped before Lady Dearn’s big mansion in Park Lane. The owner got out of the car and made his way with graceful dignity u...

Autumn had made its colorous advance in Tasmania, scattering vermilion and coppery tints into gardens, orchards, and along mirroring streams shadowed by graceful, weeping willow...

Languorous strains of music floated through the air, at times drowned by laughter and the hum of voices, and at others rising timidly, tremblingly above them with alluring, haun...