The heel of Achilles

“_Provinces twain o’er the land held sway, and the country was ruled by twain, I made the laws, as King, but you, as Premier, revoked them again. You were my faithful A.D.C., wh...

“Good little dog, Shamrock,” said Grandpapa approvingly, when Shamrock prostrated himself in an attitude of maudlin affection before the old man’s arm-chair, as he invariably di...

She hastily put on her hat, left the front door ajar behind her, and walked out into the road and down a street that ran at an angle to Regency Terrace.

Aunt Beryl certainly looked much as usual when she reappeared downstairs, but it was very evident that two days without her had thoroughly awakened both Grandpapa and Uncle Geor...

It was a scarlet-faced Lydia, with labouring chest, that eventually dropped on to the selected spot of Wimbledon Common, but she at least had the satisfaction of hearing her own...

Grandpapa leant stiffly back in his arm-chair, a tiny, waxen-looking figure, with alert eyes that seemed oddly youthful and mischievous, seen above his knotted hands and shrunke...

“You can’t hope to save much at first, you know,” said Aunt Beryl. “But you’re well off for clothes, and won’t want anything new except the black dress they said you’d need, and...

“You may thank your lucky stars,” said that young lady impressively, “that old Madam took to you. Girls have been tumbling over one another, by all accounts, to get that job of...

Lydia found it easy to believe that the staff was made up of young women taken from a class superior to that of the ordinary London shop-girl. That was Old Madam’s policy.

“I have come to an arrangement with the manageress about Hector’s tea,” retorted Mrs. Bulteel, with a magnificence that seemed inadequate to the cup of strong tea, and slices of...

She was not averse from some slight exploitation of her first conquest, and moreover she thought it quite likely that a hint might reach Aunt Beryl any day through Miss Nettlesh...

“He’ll have to go,” she said without preliminary. “I got his cheque, and the Bank has returned it. You see how it is, dear--a terrible business. I don’t know whether I shan’t ha...

“Your Aunt Evelyn, with Olive. They’ve been worried about Olive for quite a time now--she can’t throw off a cold she caught in the autumn, and, of course, there _have_ been lung...

“Then we shall do it easy. Tell me,” said Uncle George, with an abruptness that argued a strong desire to give a fresh trend to the conversation, “what do you suppose the road’s...

“In a shop! Oh, how wonderful! And you find you can write? But I needn’t ask. It _must_ find exp’ession somehow, mustn’t it--and one so often has to rise above uncongenial surro...

Mr. Monteagle Almond--who would think more highly of her intellectual attainments than ever--Miss Glover, who had so much wanted to have Lydia on her staff of highly-qualified t...

Sir Rupert never made any inquiries as to her progress, but the first time that she handed him a typewritten letter for signature, he scrutinized it very carefully, suggested on...

The room was a very pretty one, seeming enormous after Number Seventeen at the boarding-house, and with a comfortable deep arm-chair near the bed, and a little vase of red, scen...

“Of course you’ll come to us again, Lydia dear, whenever you can get away, won’t you? Father does so hope you will--I’ve never seen him take such a fancy to anyone as he has to...

Lydia, like many another girl of her age and standing, seldom read a newspaper. She had been taught that “divorce” was a shocking word, not mentioned among decent people. The oc...

“Lydia, I should never have had the courage to think of this, I don’t suppose, if I hadn’t seen you first at work--not afraid to take up employment for the sake of your own inde...

“Poor things--I wonder if the girl has a good doctor. Get her down here, Lydia, for a couple of months. Good air and feeding up must make a difference--and couldn’t her mother b...

She remained on the cricket-field until the end of the match, wondering all the time what was happening at the surgery, and in what intolerable mood of exaltedness Jennie would...

Jennie’s husband must be a man who would recognize her foolish rebellion against her mother’s love for what it was--the ill-regulated ebullitions of a youthfulness that was whol...

“What time would you like me to order the pony-cart, Mr. Valentine? We can easily drive you to the station. I think my daughter told me that you wanted to catch the three-thirty...

“I guess the war isn’t going to wait for any of us,” said Mr. Valentine. “This card has my address--the club will always find me. But it’s only fair to tell you that Jennie has...

“I’ve watched it for nearly twenty years,” Joyce declared recklessly, “and I’ve not spoken. Once you told us--do you remember?--that your grandfather had given you a rule, and t...

“Funny you should say that. He’s my godson--Horace--and he _is_ a good bit more like our side of the family than any of the others. Not that the others take after their father i...

Miss Nettleship assailed Lydia with a flood of eager and interested questions. She seemed to know by name and reputation everyone belonging to the family of Damerel, and inquire...

The quivering nerves of her mind, wrenched to the point of uttermost tension, had with almost irrational intensity fixed upon speech with old Mr. Palmer as the one forlorn hope...

Surprisingly enough, Lydia felt, one went through it with very little feeling of any kind. The emotion that struck most sharply at her consciousness was one of surprise that so...