The Little Old Portrait

There was great rejoicing among the children in the farmhouse of Belle Prairie, one of the most flourishing farms in the beautiful part of Touraine where it was situated. To-mor...

The Marcel children were up betimes the next morning--not that they were ever late, in summer especially, for, young as they were, there were plenty of ways in which they alread...

"`But you _must_ come, Mademoiselle Edmee; your lady mamma has sent for you,' said Victorine, by no means pleased, but a little afraid of getting into some trouble with this det...

That was a terrible journey back from Sarinet to Valmont-les-Roses. Little Pierre Germain never forgot it. The first day they got on well enough, and perched up on his seat besi...

My mother has been reading over what I have already written. She smiles at my description of her as a child, and maintains that my portrait of her, as well as that which hangs i...

"`My lady said I might tell you?' she said slowly, `my dear, do not look so unhappy. It is no such very news. It is only what we have always known would have to be, sooner or la...

"On a fine summer evening about two years after the sad day that had seen the departure of Edmee and her mother from their beloved home, Madame Germain, with her husband and son...

"As a rule, news, even of great importance, travelled very slowly in those days. But not long after the return of Nanette there came to Valmont, as to even far remoter corners o...

"`But should we wait, father,' exclaimed Pierre. `I feel so certain no news will come, and every day, every hour, it is so much time lost--can we not set off at once? Father, mo...

"Pierre had wandered down the whole length of the Rue de Lille before he quite came to himself, and then he started to see how far he had come. He had crossed two or three side...

"Pierre opened the door, but in an instant he saw it was not the priest. A woman in dark clothing, her face half concealed by a veil or handkerchief of some kind, which she had...

"A few minutes later the two men went away. They paid for the wine they had drunk, but said nothing. Pierre breathed more freely when they were gone, and as both he and his two...

to attempt to scream or to make any resistance, he was safe and fast in Pierre's strong arms, his mouth so firmly gagged that, though he was scarlet, nay purple, with rage and t...