The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker: A Novel

The words dropped out one by one. There was a world of torture and suffering, tinged with reproach and bitterness, in Mrs. Whittaker's tones. Alfred Whittaker gave a great start...

I am convinced that there is a huge opening for what I would call an all-round advice bureau. Its claims would reach far and wide, its clients would be drawn from all classes. A...

Nothing of any importance happened in the household at Ye Dene for two years after this. Then it became time for Maudie to be introduced into society. With most girls this epoch...

It cannot be said that as a family the inhabitants of Ye Dene were a success at Northampton Park. I have already said that they made friends slowly, and in saying so I was of co...

There is something very alluring in the idea of kicking down conventions, yet if this be carried too far, it is possible that all the feminine virtues will follow suit. A woman...

Now if there was one thing on which Julia Whittaker prided herself, it was that she could carry color in her eye. A great many people have the same belief, and it is a point upo...

We train up our children, kindly or harshly, according to our temperaments, that they may walk along a certain road. The road is usually one of several, and it is an almost inva...

You know what the British workman is. Believe me, that the particular specimen of the British workman who haunts Northampton Park has no fewer sins than his fellow who inhabits...

"You must," said Alfred to his wife in the sanctity of their sleeping apartment, "find out what Maudie would like to have for her wedding present from us. I wouldn't buy her 'a...

It is odd that, while business is a mantle sufficiently ample to cover a whole lifetime of sins, we usually credit any pastime with being the cloak of a good deal of wickedness.

Why is it that women are so fond of founding societies both for the improvement of themselves and of each other? Is it a confession of weakness, or is it one of the signs of the...

Julia duly implanted in her parents' minds the preliminary idea that a change from Ye Dene might be desirable. But the Whittakers did not leave the Park just then, for it was on...

If the Whittaker girls had been unpopular as children, they certainly made up for it, so far as Northampton Park was concerned, when they became young women. The innovation of h...

There is much more value in the many "cures" that we take nowadays than is at first apparent to the eye. One cannot take a cure for the renovation of any part of one's body with...

Now it happened before Regina and her husband left Paris that Madame de la Barre intimated through the girls that she would like to have a little confidential chat with her pupi...

They were not married in a hurry. Regina had come of old-fashioned people, who held firmly to the belief that courting time is the sweetest of a woman's life; that it is good fo...

At last Maudie Whittaker's wedding day dawned--a golden July day, fair and still, without being oppressively hot. I think I have already said that the houses of Marksby and Whit...

If Regina had ordered a plate of soup it would have been brought to her immediately, because at one o'clock that comestible would have been ready and awaiting the wishes of cust...

Regina, all unconscious of the gossip that with her for its central figure was floating about the Park, went slowly down the road in the direction of Ye Dene. Truth to tell, she...

Mrs. Whittaker laid her plans for leaving Ye Dene with the skill of a diplomat and the secrecy of a detective. She determined that she would take nobody into her confidence. If...

They say that after a storm there comes a calm, and a very true saying it is. After the storm of orange blossoms that raged around Ye Dene on that July day, there came a calm wh...

"A very good bit of salmon," said Alfred, looking inquiringly at his wife as he held the fish server and fork suggestively toward the dish; "you will have a bit more, dearest?"

"Pray be seated, madame," said Madame Clementine. "I am delighted to be honored by a visit from so distinguished a lady. Certainly I know your name well, everyone interested in...

Regina duly received the promised card or diet sheet. I may say that she took it from its enveloping wrapper with a certain feeling of mystery akin to awe, and she studied its i...

To begin my story properly, I must go back to the time when the Empress Eugenie had not started the vogue of the crinoline, when the Indian Mutiny had not stained the pages of h...

We are often blamed for not speaking out as soon as a doubt enters our mind, yet oftentimes the reticence which such a doubt begets is a saving grace which redeems and sanctifie...

When once Harry Marksby had taken the plunge and was accepted as a lover of Maudie's, he was determined not to let the grass grow under his feet. May was then about three parts...

During the rest of the dinner Regina made a valiant effort to appear as thoroughly at ease as if the portly gentleman down below was no kith or kin of hers. When she had once pu...

Several days had gone by and still the anxiously-looked-for summons had not arrived from Alfred Whittaker to his wife. To outward seeming Regina was as calm in the face of this...

It was fortunate for Regina that she had been in the past accustomed to live her life a good deal to herself. An ordinary wife and mother who started out on a scheme of rejuvena...

During the month which they spent in the fascinating little town on the northern coast, Regina lived a very _dolce far niente_ kind of life. Her anxieties as to the hussy were,...

The waiting-room at Northampton Park boasted of no attendant, so Regina was able to sit down by the bare mahogany table and wait until the storm which possessed her had passed b...

Mrs. Whittaker crept softly out of the room, and went as softly out of the house. There was a pillar-box a little way along the road, and it was not an infrequent habit with her...

Somehow those sables served to put Regina further from her husband instead of drawing her nearer to him. I'm sure that Alfred Whittaker himself would have been shocked had he kn...

Regina had come to the end of her period of martyrdom. Her weight was ten stones seven pounds, her waist was twenty-five inches. Her family had grown used to what both father an...