The fulfilment

The book for which its author gave her life is now given to the world with profound pity and regret. Pity for a bright young life so suddenly hurried into Eternity, and regret t...

Cold, cold, unutterably cold and silent. The woods were still, the frosty air so still that not a leaf stirred. The moon shone white and glorious; scarcely one shimmering cloud...

The shabby old farmyard, small and dingy as it might appear to one more accustomed to the outside world, was a huge and magnificent place to the untravelled. The gates, the door...

The bedroom was still. A candle burned on the chimney-piece, but its light was only feeble. In the bed lay a woman, wasted and weak, but at present sleeping, and there was no on...

Once more night was reigning, but the frost had gone. It was cold, but with the chilliness of late spring, not winter, and the gusty wind blew heavy clouds across the sky. A rai...

To the children at first this was all delightfully new. The house was bigger, the rooms higher, and altogether it was wonderfully strange. Hot water upstairs and down was a trem...

In the front bedroom the gas had been lit and lowered. The objects in the room showed obscurely, till suddenly there flashed into it three lights—one purest white, one blending...

The appearance of prosperity on the farmer’s part lasted for just about two years. During that time Maggie won a scholarship and went to another school. Deborah still remained a...

Two years had passed away, and the January of the third had begun. The scene was once again upon the hillside, a bright starlit night in January 1889. But the same miserable win...

Thus the two years of prosperity had ended in deeper gloom than that in which they started. Christmas had gone by in the usual festivities, and rather strangely the whole family...

There was still Elinor and Maggie and Deborah at home besides Marion, and Jack, who had come home to study for a Civil Service examination, had not yet obtained an appointment,...

Not that any difference showed itself on the outside. She was still the same quiet, unobtrusive, uninteresting child, with the same bundle of infirmities and the same nervous dr...

Deborah did not like teaching; it had only been in father’s lifetime that it had appeared to her the least bit nice. You see she had a great many infirmities, some easily discer...

Whatever were Deborah’s qualifications beauty and attractiveness were not among the foremost. From the age of fifteen to twenty she was tormented unceasingly with sties upon her...

College was very distasteful. Her one aim and object in life was to live quietly and to be peaceably let alone; but there was never any quietness here, and much less peace. Priv...

A country school to the uninitiated may probably appear a haven of rest and peacefulness. But under certain circumstances, and in certain places, it may be the exact opposite of...

As soon as Deborah came out of college she made fresh literary attempts; she was not successful. Now, frequent and continuous failures are depressing, but they usually have the...

From that time forward the village, its inmates, and the school became blanks to her. True, the school dragged her down like a prison chain each day, for she had grown to hate t...

Then Deborah, walking alone in the shade of evening, came on the outskirts of a dense forest. The foliage within was thick and feathery, the branches heavy and dark. Above there...

[The want of the author’s revising hand is here evident. There is no literary link between this part of the story and “Earth.” The reader will, however, perceive that it is Geni...

When I awoke, night had fallen without, and I was alone. The fire still burnt brightly, and what other light was needed came from an electric candelabra hanging from the centre...

To have felt anything of the brightness of early morning here was quite out of the question. The same feeling of utter loneliness and depression that accompanied me when I fell...

“Oh, they live in the back wings of the palace,” she answered. “Some of them are very happy there, and have quite nice little homes. At least, so Plucritus says, but I never tro...

I remember one afternoon wandering through the grounds alone, hating my empty existence, yet having no power to alter it, when I was interrupted by Vestné coming to me. In her e...

“I quite forgot,” said he, giving me no time to put a question, “I quite forgot to borrow a needle and thread whilst on the earth. Probably you yourself have learnt the art of m...

“I shall not trouble you any further,” said Vestasian. “You look tired, and there is little pleasure in this kind of work except to those who understand and care for it.”

We returned to the Palace, and still found it the centre of life and brilliancy. I noticed, on entering the large dining-hall in which supper was served, that neither Plucritus...

We were by this time in a large, light, comfortable room, and on looking through the window I saw it faced on to a wide and handsome street, so long that I was unable to tell th...

Who ever yet rising with dawn felt not some disappointment when it died away and left nothing but Working Day, its one unceasing gift? For Dawn with all its freshness laughs and...

To this dawn at the close of day I too had come. In weariness and weakness I had fallen down, unable of myself to reach that which I saw before me. I had remembrance of nothing...

But where had gone that coldness, that almost taciturn manner, and the sternness that had seemed to me his most especial characteristics when on earth? Even that silence, which...

Freshness and beauty reigned on all things. The early morning scent of flowers, the bright singing of the birds, the glorious sunlight responded like youth’s freshest friends to...

There is no doubt we made a very happy party, and the journey, though long as regards distance, was very quickly accomplished in a light and comfortable vehicle borne by six hor...

The next morning I awoke with the busy sounds of life all round me. Through the open window penetrated the sound of eager voices, and of people hurrying to and fro. Already the...

One evening, after dinner, Virginius asked me to take a walk with him. We strolled into the clear night, and through the grounds that lay behind the house. This brought us to th...

Next day I went to visit a painter, Adrian, and he took me to an inner studio where he kept some of his favourite works, and at last he stayed before a white curtain, soft as ve...