The Child Wife

"In faith, I've done a very foolish thing," reflected the young Irishman, as he entered his dormitory, and flung himself into a chair. "Still there was no help for it. Such talk...

"Fool that I've been, and for a similar reason!" The rejoinder, in a female voice, came from an inner apartment. At the same instant the door, already ajar, was spitefully pushe...

"Haven't an idea, sir. They left no address. They 'pear to be Yankees--'Mericans, I mean," said the man, correcting himself, in fear of giving offence. "Very respectable people-...

His last tour upon the Continent--whither he had gone with his daughter--had given the finishing blow to his strength; and he was now home again, so enfeebled that he could no l...

Time was--and that not "long, long ago"--when the arrival of a European steamer at New York was an event, as was also the departure. There were only "Cunarders" that came and we...

But he was not thinking either of dress or toilet. His mind was in an agony of excitement that precluded all thoughts about personal appearance. Despite the ringing in his brain...

His presence in the French metropolis may be explained by stating, that he had read in an English newspaper a paragraph announcing the arrival of Sir George Vernon at Paris. The...

The friendship between Kossuth and Captain Maynard was of no common character. It had not sprung out of a mere chance acquaintance, but from circumstances calculated to cause mu...

The ball was almost over; the flagged and flagging dancers rapidly retiring. The belles were already gone, and among them Julia Girdwood. Only the wallflowers, yet comparatively...

It was the season of English rural enjoyment, when crops had been garnered, and rents paid; when the farmer rests from his toil, and the squire luxuriates in his sports.

Before them were decanters and glasses, wine bottles of varied shapes, an epergne filled with choice flowers, silver trays loaded with luscious fruits, nuts, olives--in short, a...

Men make the crossing of the Atlantic in a Cunard steamer, sit side by side, or _vis-a-vis_, at the same table, three and sometimes four times a day, without ever a word passing...

The ringing of the bell did not cause Mr Swinton to start. It might have done so had he been longer in his new residence. His paper "kites" were still carried about London, with...

He was reflecting upon the incident that had caused him such a toilsome detour; though his thoughts were dwelling less upon this than upon the face of one of the two naiads seen...

It was a relief to Mrs Girdwood and her girls. They had begun to fancy themselves _too much observed_. At least Julia had, half suspecting herself of being the subject of a cyni...

Accustomed to such surprises, however, he was not disconcerted. He had some knowledge of the ex-guardsman's character. He knew he was in ill-luck; and that under such circumstan...

From the time of the hack's departure, till the moment when the valet was so hastily sent out of the room, Mr Swinton had been acting as a man in full possession of his senses....

The supper was provided by "Kate the coper," who had lately been "in luck"; having netted handsomely on one of her steeds, sold to a young "spoon" she had recently picked up, an...

More than that, a man determined on its being righted. Nor could his lordship mistake that it was against himself. The bold, almost bullying, attitude of his visitor, so differe...

He thought it a little strange at that hour. It was bathing-time upon the beach. He could see the boxes discharging their gay groups in costumes of green and blue, crimson and s...

Reclined along a common horse-hair sofa, with squab and cushions hard and scuffed, she was reading one of De Kock's novels, in translation. Fan was not master of the French tong...

Their dialogue had ended along with their dressing; and they had betaken themselves to two separate occupations--both of which called for silence. Miss Girdwood had commenced re...

In the balconied window of a handsome house fronting on the Tuileries Gardens were two female figures, neither of which had anything to pronounce them Parisian. One was a young...

But the older hands, who constitute the members of the "Mutual Admiration Society"--those disappointed aspirants, who in all ages and countries assume the criticism of art and a...

He did not stay, as one who takes a leaving look at his native land. It was evidently not his. In his own features, and those of the child held in his hand, there was an unmista...

The strange dialogue thus terminated took place in front of the window of Mrs Girdwood's apartment. It was in the night; a night starless and calm, and of course favourable to t...

"Interfering with their duty. That isn't all. I chanced to see him last night in the Cafe de Mille Colonnes. He was there speaking against the government, and expressing pity fo...

"Maynard! If it be the Captain Maynard spoken of in the papers, he's not such a nobody. At least the despatches do not say so. Why, it was he who led the forlorn hope at C--, be...

On that same evening, exactly at half-past seven o'clock, a carriage, issuing from the stable-yard, came rolling along toward the hotel. By the absence of livery coat, and the b...

The Newport season was over. Mrs Girdwood had returned to her splendid mansion in the Fifth Avenue, soon to receive a visitor, such as even Fifth Avenue houses do not often ente...

In its sea-view the Empire City is unfortunate, presenting scarce a point worthy of being remembered. There is no salient feature like the great dome of Saint Paul's, in London,...

An autumn sun was just rising over the plains of the yellow Theiss, when two travellers, issuing from the gates of the old fortified city of Arad, took their way toward the vill...

The hall-keeper remembered the gent, who carried such good cigars, and was so liberal with them. He had been pleased with his appearance then. He liked it better now in a new co...

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, brought up amidst abundance of gold, with broad acres for his heritage, and a peer age in prospect, he was deemed a desirable companion fo...

With difficulty cordelling his barge around the Regent's Park, Bill Bootle, the canal boatman, was making slow speed. This because the fog had thickened unexpectedly; and it was...

"No; only of Newport. And if I did, what matter? I wish I were back in it. Anywhere but here, among these bulls and bull-dogs. Give me New York over all cities in the world."

It was of rigorous necessity that a passport should be obtained--either from the consular agent of France, or the British Foreign Office; and for this purpose daylight would be...

"By my faith?" he continued, with an emphasis on each word, "if that isn't a little of the coolest! What the dickens have I been doing for these dames? In the country of my chri...

To the Parisians, more especially, was it a day of lamentation; and its anniversary can never pass over the French capital without tears in every house, and trembling in every h...

Four of them are already known to the reader. They were Mrs Swinton, Mrs Girdwood, her daughter and niece. The fifth was a stranger, not only to the reader, but to Mrs Girdwood...

But during the time of her toilet she had been occupied in the perusal of a newspaper, that seemed greatly to interest her. Every now and then an exclamation escaped her lips, i...

Lying west of the Regent's Park, and separated from it by Park Road, is a tract of land sparsely studded with those genteel cottages which the Londoner delights to invest with t...

They halted near its centre, in front of the marquee occupied by its commander-in-chief. They had arrived just in time to witness a remarkable scene--none more so on military re...

"The ladies are going to accompany us to the cover," said Sir George, making glad the hearts of his sportsmen guests. "So, gentlemen," he added, "you must have a care how you sh...

Despite the influence used to blacken them--the whole power of a corrupted press--they were still sounds of magical import; symbols that at any day might stir up the peoples to...

The place would account for their being there at so late an hour-- excursionists to the Crystal Palace--but still more, a certain volubility of speech, suggesting the idea of th...

The guests intended to take seats at the table had been carefully selected. In addition to those staying at the Hall, there were others specially invited for the occasion--of co...

In the title bestowed by Block there was at least appropriateness--even something of poetry. Sailing around Sachuest Point, he beheld the grand woods, red in the golden sun-glow...

The equivocation was not exactly to his taste. It certainly seemed strange enough. Still, though a little chagrined, he was not altogether discomforted by it; for how could he a...

In the morning he has the chase, or the shooting party, complete in their kind, and both varied according to the character of the game. In the evening he sits down to a dinner,...

On arriving at his own residence, Swinton's servants scarcely recognised him. It was as much as his own wife could do. There were several dark weals traced diagonally across his...

In a ball-room, where all are not supposed to be _best people_, the solitary gentlemen-stranger finds but little opportunity of taking exercise--especially in the "square-dances...

Before her, in her sleep, had been a face, on which she loved to look. Awake, she could think only of one she had reason to fear--the face of an angry father.

The revolutionary throe that shook the thrones of Europe in 1848 was but one of those periodical upheavings occurring about every half-century, when oppression has reached that...

The speech was made in a handsome apartment of the Hotel de Louvre, and addressed to two young ladies, in elegant _dishabille_, one of them seated in an easy chair, the other ly...

"Never more to see her--never more to hear of her! From her I need not expect. She dares not write. No doubt an embargo has been laid upon that. Parental authority forbids it.

The revolutionary leader who had taken up his residence _vis-a-vis_ to the McTavish villa, and whose politics were so offensive to its royal lessee, was no other than the ex-dic...

The disappearance of a dancing guest from the midst of three score others is a thing not likely to be noticed. And if noticed, needing no explanation--in English "best society."

To those who take no note of social distinctions, Swinton's scheme in relation to Julia Girdwood will appear grotesque. Not so much on account of its atrocity, but from the chan...

He possessed both the patent and parchments of nobility; and he intended taking care of them. But he still wanted fortune; and this seemed now before him. Julia Girdwood had con...

"You mad, missa!" cried the mulatto, throwing herself into the doorway with the design of intercepting her. "What will you fadda say? Dat's danger outside 'mong dem noisy sojas....

While the hero of C--was thus starting to seek fresh fame on a foreign shore, he came very near having his escutcheon stained in the land he was leaving behind him!

Though once more in his own rooms, with a couch that seemed to invite him to slumber, he could not sleep. All night long he lay tossing upon it, thinking of Blanche Vernon.

"By Jawve!" exclaimed Swinton. "It's that fellaw, Maynard. You remember him, ladies? The fellaw who, at Newpawt, wan away after gwosely insulting me, without giving me the oppaw...

Summoned at eleven o'clock, he had been there at the appointed time; but to find that he and his bride were not the only couple to be made happy on that same day, and at the sam...

He did not know who they were; but their conversation soon told him. They were the spies who occupied the house opposite Kossuth--the very individuals he had sallied forth in se...

In this underground region the talk of gentlemen, who have waxed warm over their cups, may be carried on ever so rudely, without danger of its reaching the delicate ears of thos...

The gentlemen stayed but a short while over their wine. The twanging of harp-strings and tuning of violins, heard outside, told that their presence was required in the drawing-r...

A fly might be had there; but not without some one going to fetch it. For this he must be indebted to his host. He was in a dress suit, and could not well walk, without courting...

"I'm glad you're not angry with me. Though I've reason to be ashamed of my conduct, I must be candid and tell you, that I scarce deem it a misfortune having overheard you. It is...

But he was not silent. His heart was full of indignation; and his lips mechanically gave utterance to it in a wild anathema against all forms and shapes of despotism.

The discoloration of his cheeks, caused by the horsewhip, was slow of coming out; and even the oyster kept on for twenty-four hours failed to eliminate the purple crescent under...

"It will do," he muttered to himself, with a satisfied air. "Just in the right spot, and Fan--isn't she the thing for it? By Jove! she shows well. Never saw her look better in h...

But it was only a slight ruffle, such as might spring from some unpleasantness. It was regret for the escape of Louis Kossuth, from the toils that had been set for him, and set...

The question was from Julia Girdwood to her cousin, after their return to the Hotel de Louvre. They were alone in their _chambre de coucher_, still shawled and bonneted, as they...

There was but one thing for which Richard Swinton really now cared. He liked "euchre"; he would have relished revenge; but there was a thought to which both these enjoyments had...

If ever Mrs Girdwood had a surprise in her life, it was when Mr Swinton called at the Clarendon Hotel, and asked if she and her girls would accept an invitation to a reception a...

"So long as _he_ lives," said the commissioner of that crown most nearly concerned, "so long will there be danger to our empire. A week, a day, a single hour, may witness its di...

The city clerk could tell him to be of the West End type. It was visible in the cut of his dress, the tonsure of his hair, and the joining of the moustache to his whiskers.

In London dark nights are the rule, not the exception. More especially in the month of November; when the fog rolls up from the muddy Thames, spreading its plague-like pall over...

There is perhaps no more superb sight than the "meet" of an English hunting-field--whether it be staghounds or fox. Even the grand panoply of war, with its serried ranks and bra...

and where a shopkeeper's daughter is as good as his granddaughter. I wanted to go there this season. Mother objected. Nothing would satisfy her but Newport, Newport, Newport! An...

The steamer that carried Captain Maynard and his fortunes out of the Narraganset Bay, had not rounded Point Judith before his name in the mouths of many became a scorned word. T...

Scarce a week had elapsed since that somewhat lugubrious interview between Count Roseveldt and Captain Maynard in the room of the latter, when the two men once more met in the s...

With mingled emotions do we bring our tale to a close. Some of its scenes may have given pain; while others, it is to be hoped, have been suggestive of pleasure.

He knew that ere long sable plumes would be seen waving there, with a black hatchment upon the wall. He wished not that these funereal emblems should so soon fling their blighti...

In Park Lane, as all know, fronting upon Hyde Park, are some of the finest residences in London. They are mansions, mostly inhabited by England's aristocracy; many of them by th...