The Nether Millstone

"I can hear the master's voice again," he murmured. "Time seems to have gone back with me. It is as if you had come like a ghost from the grave, Mr. Ralph. And it was close here...

The meeting was quite an unexpected one for Ralph. He had his own powerful reason for not wishing to come in contact with Lady Dashwood, but the thing was done now, and there wa...

There were tears in the girl's eyes--tears of futile anger and despair. The danger was so great, and yet safety was so near. If only the black horse would stumble or swerve, if...

"What a time you have been!" he said impatiently. "Why did you not return before, knowing how anxious I should be? Mayfield came for a telegram form, so I presume he has made ma...

On the whole it was a most marvellous recovery. The nurse had been a little severe on Mary; she had had no business to fly to the bedroom of the patient in that way. But Ralph w...

"It does not matter in the least who I am," Ralph replied. "To put it bluntly, Lady Dashwood has asked me to get rid of you. Until you have disposed of this portion of the prope...

No reason to tell Mary now that it was Mrs. Speed who was speaking. She recognised the tired, faded voice by this time. But the other voice was still more familiar.

Sir George clasped his hands to his eyes; everything for the moment had faded from his sight. The blood was rushing wildly through his head; there was a din like the clang of ha...

"Now I must get you to pay for the cab," Mary went on in the same gay voice, "for I haven't the money, at least, not in my pocket. You will find the place very small and mean, b...

The cloth had been drawn in the old-fashioned way, so that the candles in the ancient silver branches made pools of brown light on the polished mahogany of the dining table. Her...

The silent moody dinner was over at length; Slight was placing the dessert on the shining mahogany. Mary rose presently and walked over to the open window. Over the park the moo...

There were strange rumours in the air; the servants at the Hall were asking thrilling questions in whispers. Nobody seemed to know anything but Slight, who kept his counsel. Eve...

With a sigh of passionate relief Vincent Dashwood watched the cab drive away. He hardly knew what he had to fear, and yet he discovered the fact that he had got rid of some grea...

The morning was just breaking as Slight and his companion left the house. By the time that it was possible to see they began their search. By this time too, Walters had more tha...

Mr. George Dashwood was of opinion that things at the Hall were not as they used to be in the old days. In the first place he had been compelled to walk up from the station afte...

Mary's patience was fairly well tried before she had an opportunity of seeing Mrs. Speed. She heard the latter cry out in astonishment at the sight of Lady Dashwood; she heard t...

The big clock on the breakfast-room mantelpiece was chiming the hour of ten as Sir George came downstairs. He was a little later than usual, and he apologized to his guest for h...

Connie refused to be drawn into further conversation for the present. She was very busy touching up certain sketches which she informed Mary were intended to illustrate the page...

The silver matchbox was a peculiar one and quite out of the common run of such things. It had a spring lid deeply engraved with a hunting scene, in the centre of the medallion a...

It was all working out now exactly as Ralph had hoped and wished for. Never had he admired Mary quite so much as he did at that moment. And yet his heart smote him as he realise...

Just for a moment Mary felt inclined to disclose her identity. It warmed her heart and brought tears to her eyes to hear this kind of voice from the past. The wound of separatio...

Mr. George Dashwood staggered into the hall at the dower house with an exaggeration of grief that filled Mary with contempt. The dethroned head of the house seemed to have no th...

"You are getting on," Connie cried, "after a time you will become a Radical. Already you are fast forgetting the caste of Vere de Vere, especially after your visit to the pawnbr...

Ralph crossed the great hall in the direction of the drawing-room. He had made up his mind what to do. So far as he could judge, the blow would have to fall before long. When on...

Mary drew back a moment to see what was going to happen. She ought to have been utterly taken by surprise at her discovery, but she felt no emotion of that kind. She was past th...

It was a long telegram that Ralph despatched from the village, for he only received a few pence out of the half-sovereign that he placed on the counter. The operator sighed at t...

Mary seemed to flame from head to foot. The momentary hesitation passed. No, it was quite impossible to support this kind of thing for the best part of a week; the thought of sl...

"I'm glad she's gone," Connie exclaimed as the cab drove away and the last flutter of Grace's handkerchief had vanished. "Let us hope she will have a happy time with Lady Dashwo...

Hitherto Mary had been entirely dependent upon her newly-found friend. She had come up to London with the proud intention of making her own living, a Dashwood ready to defy Fate...

"And so that is what you mean!" Mary said slowly when at length she had found sufficient breath to speak. "Stripped of empty phrases and diplomatic trappings, I am to make a bar...

"We shall get to the point all in good time," Mayfield said deliberately. "That screen forms a kind of cosy corner and entrance to the terrace. If a good dinner gave you a heada...

With faltering hesitation Lady Dashwood made her way into the dark hall beyond the drawing-room. She bore little resemblance to the grand dame that her friends knew. In spite of...

Dashwood nodded sulkily. He had a vague idea that Ralph was making fun of him in some way. Still, he was understood to say that such was his precise meaning. Lady Dashwood rose...

Lady Dashwood smiled through her tears. She had eyes of affection for this tall, handsome, earnest man who paced up and down the room now with the burning words on his lips. He...

In an aimless kind of way Speed stepped into the street and turned his steps in the direction of the City. It had occurred to him almost in the light of an inspiration that Hora...

Mary spoke as one who is moved to the very core of her being. It was not merely a painful and unpleasant incident that faced her, but something in the nature of a great and over...

There was no longer any question as to the house being on fire. Very rapidly Mary proceeded to don her clothing; her idea afterwards was to alarm the house. The girl was not con...

There was a smile on Slight's face, as if he rather enjoyed the situation. After all was said and done, the culprit had been successful in bringing about the thing the old butle...

Sir George Dashwood sat in the Gothic library at Dashwood Hall bewailing his hard fate in a manner which would have been called peevish in a less distinguished man. He wanted to...

The porter summoned a cab gruffly and the baskets were placed on top. Mary's proffered coppers purchased a certain amount of civility so that the porter asked the address. Mary...

Sir George lay back on the bed with weary eyelids closed. His last effort had cost him more than he knew. Mary's will had conquered for the moment, and he felt disposed to obey....

A sense of blinding, unreasonable anger held Ralph for the moment. He was doing nothing wrong. He was acting entirely for the best, and here he was taken under the most shameful...

Meanwhile the police were pushing on their investigations into the causes leading up to the fire at Dashwood Hall with great energy. The clue of the matchbox was held to be an i...

A feeling of almost physical sickness held Mary for the moment. She had dreaded this thing, and at the same time she had hoped against it--it had seemed almost impossible that s...

Ralph's first feeling was one of contempt. It was almost incredible that a man of Sir George's position could behave in so childish and weak a fashion. Here was the diplomatist...

Grace Cameron was making a pretence of breakfast when Mary and Connie arrived. Her pallid face was more flushed than usual, her cough very distressing. But she had no thought fo...

"I had no intention of seeing you," Lady Dashwood said. "To think that you are the son of my dearest friend! It is well that she died before she knew. I came here to see Mary, b...

It was some time before Mary spoke again. Ralph wondered if she had any inkling of the real truth. He had perhaps said a little too much, and perhaps, on the other hand, he had...

Once the ladies had departed, Sir George brightened visibly. He reached out eagerly for the claret and drank two glasses rapidly. Ralph declined the decanters, and also the ciga...

Vincent Dashwood seemed to expand, he stood there smiling benignly, he had lost his strange uneasiness of manner altogether. And yet Mary did not fail to notice the furtive look...

Connie was the first to recover herself. She knew far better than Mary how great the danger was, how great the need for coolness and judgment. And she had been in dire straits l...

Just for a moment it looked as if Ralph's pretty scheme was destined to fall to the ground. Naturally, Mary had the haziest idea of what was taking place. She could only see tha...

Mayfield's face was grim and set; there was just a flash of contempt in his eyes for Speed, who was breathing hard. The dramatic part of the situation was lost on Mr. George Das...

Speed rose next morning with a sense of his dangers and responsibilities. He had sat up late the night before, thinking things over to the accompaniment of much whisky and soda....

Mary placed her hand to her head in utter bewilderment. The world seemed to have changed in the last few hours. Hitherto, life at Dashwood had progressed on oiled springs, calm...

The lights in the great silver candlesticks at the dower house shed a soft radiance over the dinner-table where Lady Dashwood sat alone. It was not yet dark, the saffron glow of...

They had been very quiet for a long time as they sat in the rose garden looking over the park. They could see the dappled deer under the great oaks; the shadow of the fine old h...

Ralph's face grew stern as he stared at the intruder. The newcomer returned the stare with insolent audacity. The pleased and softened expression had left Lady Dashwood's featur...

There were the lodge-gates at last, with the arms of the Dashwoods carved in mossy stone, and the great iron gates from the cunning hand of Quentin Matsys himself. Beyond, the n...

The speaker's tones rang out with passionate vehemence. He stumbled down the steps, into the garden, and repeated his accusation loudly. It all seemed strangely out of place the...