The pride o' the morning

A BEAM of sunshine from the far west came in at the oriel window of Castle Hill library. As its name might imply, Castle Hill stood somewhat high, at least for English Midlands....

It was not needful to announce Mr. Thomas Dugdale. He was as much at home in the house as its proper inmates. If a door were open, he walked in; if not, the butler opened it, bu...

"And that is Me," she murmured. "That always was Me. That always will be Me. Yet—when one comes to think of it—such a different Me now from what I used to be in the old, old days!"

MRS. WYVERNE waited in the front sitting-room of Burn Cottage, looking out upon the stream, the murmur of which came pleasantly to her ears. She always took care to be ready som...

BREAKFAST over, Mrs. Wyverne sat in her usual place, darning a tablecloth and entertaining a terribly early caller. Miss Robins faced her solemnly. She was a solemn individual,...

They were seated by the river, on its grass bank. Not the little Midfell stream, but a more important watercourse; a river to which the Midfell stream was a tributary.

WITH concealed rapture Phyllys heard of the promised visit to Castle Hill; and nothing was further from her expectations than to set eyes again on Giles before going. She hardly...

THE model village of Castlemere had a fine aged church of grey stone, with solid square tower and the sweetest chime of bells in the county. A comfortable Rectory adjoined the c...

THOUGH Phyllys could hardly be called obstinate, she liked to carry out her intentions. On the way to Thacker's farm she saw a thickness clothing the fells, but it made no great...

SHE knew what it meant. Thought at such a time is rapid; and as she went down, as she felt the black slime rising around her, she knew she was in a quaking bog, that bog upon th...

Once indoors Mrs. Keith unbent. Thus far she had merely made herself agreeable. Now her gloved hands held those of Phyllys, and she looked tenderly in the girl's face. After a m...

COLIN did not appear next morning till breakfast was ended; and a cup of tea met his wants. Mrs. Keith was short in manner, as if still offended; but her vexation seemed powerle...

To her the change had come as a veritable plunge, involving such sensations of shock and breathlessness as a dip in the sea will produce. The novelty of it all gripped her imagi...

FOR two hours daily did Colin lay claim upon Phyllys, and she granted what he asked, albeit not easily. Mrs. Keith had ceased from protestation, but many obstacles were put in t...

IT was one of those links in the chain of life, which present themselves unsought, which at the moment seem unimportant; yet which have a grave bearing upon one's after happiness.

Not that hers was a cold nature. On the contrary, she was famed for universal cordiality. Any human being who came was secure of a welcome. "Dear Mrs. Alyn is so sweetly affecti...

After the studio scene, he had felt that his duty was to wait, until he should know which way lay Colin's intentions. But when he met Phyllys on the stairs, when he read pleasur...

They were under a tree on the lawn; Mr. Dugdale having retreated to a basket-chair and a book within earshot. Giles had walked with Phyllys and Gordon to Brook-End Grange, and h...

Phyllys spoke warmly. Dinner was over, and she and Mrs. Keith had quitted the dining-room, leaving Giles with Mr. Dugdale, this evening, as often, a self-invited guest. Mrs. Kei...

A black hat of no particular shape was jammed low upon Miss Pringle's forehead, and a brown blouse of no particular cut "topped" a short skirt of uncompromising apple-greenness....

"No; there is no mistake. It is on purpose. She knew how happy I was—how I wanted to stay. And she loves to make me miserable. It is 'her' doing."

IF Giles had lived through years in a week when he awoke to his love for Phyllys, Phyllys lived through months in three weeks, while striving to reduce a chaos of new ideas to w...

First to succumb was the Vicar himself. He gave unqualified approval to the delicate-looking young fellow, whom nobody would have taken for more than two or three and twenty; an...

Had she never come across Colin Keith, it would have been less to her than now; yet the underflow of her mind was towards Giles, not Colin. Which seemed, perhaps, ungrateful.

"MY dear, it is absolutely unimportant. You make such a fuss. I have told you before that I have a weak heart; and I must expect attacks of this kind. The fact is, I ought to be...

She gained her point; though, probably, if Mrs. Keith had guessed what her consent would involve, it would not have been granted. When she was further enlightened, too late to d...

"IN the lives of most men there has been a week, at the memory of which ever afterwards a dark cloud comes down, and makes a possibly sunny world momentarily a place of gloom."...

Phyllys to stay a fortnight at Castle Hill! He to be, day after day, within sight, hearing, touch, yet debarred from winning her! Debarred by his own resolve in the past; by his...

IN the gallery stood Phyllys, gazing at a vacant space once occupied by an ancestral portrait. She knew the spot, though during a former visit her attention had not been drawn t...

TWO or three evenings later Mrs. Keith stood at her open bedroom window. Giles, before her return, had invited to dinner the Vicar and Dr. Wallace. She always set herself agains...

Mrs. Keith was well-dressed, but she could not have been complimented on her looks. Her face was pale with a spotted pallor, drawn, and lined. Colin noted her appearance as unus...

ONCE more at her open window, gazing, not at dim fell-outlines against a starry sky, but into the darkness of a Midland garden, with ancestral trees under a clouded heaven, knel...

All one day he had to be absent. Next morning he found himself eluded. He was aware of a change in Phyllys. She seemed constrained: no longer flushing with joy to see him. His h...

LITTLE more was seen of Giles that afternoon. But distressed though he was, he could not be called hopeless; for at least he knew with almost certainty that his love was returne...

NOTHING could keep Mrs. Keith quiet. She was unable to rest. Twenty minutes after Colin had left, she dismissed her maid, declaring herself well, and went to the scene of the co...

SOME twenty-eight years before the date of this tale James Randolph, the then owner of Castle Hill, with his wife, spent a winter in the south of France, being ordered there for...

MRS. KEITH hardly even attempted to regain self-control, but sobbed herself into a stupor, followed by sleep. Not till the morning did she again see her son; and no human being...