The Sapphire Cross

"Oh, how sweet the pines smell, Marion! I declare it's quite bliss to get down here in these wilds, with the free wind blowing the London smoke out of your back hair, and no one...

Ada Lee was right: there was a good deal of the Spanish grandee in the aspect of Sir Murray Gernon, who traced back his pedigree to the old Norman days, when, as a recompense fo...

The moon shone brightly through the window of Ada Lee's bedroom as she seated herself thoughtfully by her dressing-table. She had extinguished her light, and, attracted by the s...

People came from miles round to see that wedding, for the morning was bright and genial, and there were to be grand doings up at the castle as soon as the happy pair had taken t...

"There you are, then, my dear; that's as near the spot as I can recollect," said the person addressed, giving Jane Barker a hearty smack on her rosy cheek, such a liberty being...

The Rector's prayer was echoed by Ada Lee, as she passed out into the garden and stood thinking for a few minutes upon the lawn. Where should she go? she asked herself, for her...

It seemed as though that report awakened Philip Norton from the fit of mad despair that had prompted him to seek in oblivion the rest he could not find here--awakened him to the...

It was an accident--so people said at Merland, and from being a wonder for a time, it was soon forgotten; and when, pale and weak from many months of illness, Ada Lee was seen o...

The old love of change and adventure, which in earlier life had led Philip Norton into seeking a commission in the Indian army, clung to him still, and sometimes for days--somet...

There had been busy doings at the Castle, and Merland village was in an intense state of excitement. Old Chunt--Jonathan Chunt, who kept the "Black Bull"--said that there was to...

The Gernons had returned to the Castle for some days before Philip Norton came home, his wife anxiously scanning his countenance, to find him apparently quite happy and untroubl...

"Sir Murray and Lady Gernon. I saw the carriage come in at the lower gate. There they are, ma'am," said the girl, as the grating of wheels upon the drive preceded a loud peal at...

People said that Lady Gernon had benefited by the change--that Italy could not have agreed with her--for day by day she seemed to be casting off the dull, heavy languor that opp...

"Curse him!" muttered Gurdon, as he left the room; "a purse-proud, haughty brute! looks upon a servant as if he were a dog. I know him, though--read him like a book--turn him in...

"How well Marion looks," said Ada Norton to her husband, as, seated in one of the brilliantly-lighted drawing-rooms at the Castle, they watched her receiving fresh guests, on th...

Sir Murray Gernon had expressed a desire that there should be no scene, but his wish was of no avail, for in a few moments an excited group had collected round his wife. Salts,...

"Oh, dear!--oh, dear! what shall I do?--what shall I do?" sobbed Jane Barker. "What a wicked set we must all be for the troubles to come bubbling and rolling over us like this i...

In a few minutes husband and father were by the bedside, watching with agitated countenances the struggle going on, for truly it seemed that the long lethargy into which Lady Ge...

Ada Norton's wild appeal was answered by the Doctor's hand being held up to command silence, and, for many hours from that moment, as he tended his patient, he refused to answer...

There was a buzz of satisfaction amongst the servants as, half hysterically, Jane Barker announced the tidings of a change for the better; but when she added thereto an order fr...

Some days had passed, and the Doctor had taken his departure, confining himself now to a couple of calls per diem. Lady Gernon was progressing fast towards recovery, and Sir Mur...

But Sandy McCray was no sluggard: the little Dutch clock in his room was only striking five, and the dew was bright upon the grass, as he stepped out, crossed the bit of park be...

It was one o'clock; the hall time-piece gave a sharp "ting," to proclaim the hour, as Jane looked down over the balustrade, vainly trying to pierce the darkness below. For all w...

"Ye maraudin' villin, take that! And there's for ye too, ye deevil!" exclaimed a low, deep voice, and then another heavy, flapping blow was struck; there was a crash, a scuffle,...

It was now an acknowledged fact that there could be no further intimacy between the residents at Castle and Hall. The Nortons led a more than ever secluded life, Mrs Norton find...

"Perhaps, after all, it's just as weel that he did not come," mused Alexander McCray, as he stood one morning upon the long wooden bridge which connected, at the narrowest part,...

"The de'ils ha been quick about it," muttered Sandy; "and they've gone through the libr'y window, while, if that door I broke open has been mended again, it's a strange thing to...

Sir Murray Gernon was right in his surmise, for when McCray, eager to secure the person of his supposed rival, hurried across the drawing-room, and in the darkness made a bound...

Mrs Norton had gone to her rest that night in tears, for her husband had been absent for some days. His restlessness seemed of late to have been largely on the increase, so that...

The men obeyed, and watched their master with wondering eyes as he strode off towards the house, his brow knit, and head bent, for he wanted to be alone and to think.

Andy McCray, in spite of his dignity as head "gairdner," was not above working hard himself, and he was busy enough when, slowly and gloomily, Sir Murray made his appearance, lo...

"Gude save us!" muttered McCray, as he set off round the house at a sharp trot--"Gude save us and ha'e maircy! Here's a pretty pickle for an upper gairdner. Only just got my pro...

It is quite possible that in his heart of hearts Sir Murray Gernon had doubts as to who had been the spoiler of his family jewels, but he would admit nothing to his breast but s...

"Did you see the laird?" said McCray, coming slowly forth from behind some bushes, after Jane had been standing some few minutes in the lane where she had left him to wait.

Sir Murray Gernon had, during the past few weeks, made a good deal of use of his horses--another sign, the stablemen observed, of a returning good state of things, for they were...

McCray stood watching his master with attentive eye, as, apparently ignorant of his presence, the baronet--drenched as he was with rain and perspiration--threw himself into a ch...

"Send those people away from the door! Make her be silent; the woman's mad!" exclaimed Sir Murray excitedly, as, shrinking back, he stood, trembling and haggard, before McCray....

Everything that could be done in the way of searching was energetically carried out. The lake, every pond, and even many of the water-holes upon the moor were dragged; but no ti...

Mr Chunt presided over a good many discussions in his parlour, where farmer and tradesman met to talk over the course of events during the first few weeks. The subject of Lady G...

"You dog! you confounded lubber! Drive on, or you'll have them out of sight!" shouted a frank, opened-faced young fellow of some three or four and twenty, as he leaned out of th...

"'E've done it now, sor, an' I hope ye're satisfied!" said James, sitting complacently on his saddle, and looking at the plunging horses, his fellow-servant with one leg entangl...

"What now?" grumbled the post-boy, as he turned in his saddle, and then, in obedience to the gesticulations directed at him, pulled up very slowly, and not until he had traverse...

Twenty winters had not come and passed away without leaving traces of their frosty rime upon the heads of Captain Norton and his wife; but as they stood in the Hall dining-room,...

"But Lady Gernon's disappearance--what could have become of her? Was it possible that she was deluded away out of revenge--perhaps with the cross for a bait--by some one or othe...

"Now look here, Josh: it's of no use for you to come bothering me like this. Here have I been back from Italy only a few days, and you're down upon me like a leech--I mean like...

"It is of no use," said Brace Norton, one day, when he had been home about a month, "I can't fight against fate. I vowed that I'd think no more about her, and I've thought about...

"I've done my part," muttered Brace Norton, as, in spite of the despair of the moment, he yielded to his feelings, kissing fondly again and again the cold pale lips of the insen...

Pale and agitated, Mrs Norton hurried out, followed by the Captain, for Brace's long absence had been causing them great uneasiness; but Mrs Norton's agitation increased to a pa...

"Mother," said Brace Norton the next morning, as, none the worse for his immersion, he stood by her side, she holding his hand the while and gazing up into his face,--"mother, I...

Ten days elapsed before Dr Challen gave his consent for Isa to be removed, and during that time she had been carefully tended by Mrs Norton and Jane McCray, who had made her way...

"You will often come over and see us," whispered Isa, as she clung to Mrs Norton; and then she trembled as she saw the tear in her hostess's face and the slight shake of her head.

It is said that money has little to do with love. Be that as it may, the more often Lord Maudlaine's thoughts reverted to his friend Mr Braham, the more he increased his attenti...

"Lord Maudlaine presents his compliments to Lieutenant Norton, and begs to say, that although Lieutenant Norton's behaviour has been such that the meeting in such cases necessit...

On leaving Sir Murray Gernon, the energy which Lord Maudlaine had displayed seemed to disappear, and he entered his own room, pale and drawn of countenance. His hand, too, tremb...

When, pale and thoughtful, Lord Maudlaine strode across the lawn, his mind was agitated strangely by the feelings that oppressed him. He felt that matters had arrived at a pitch...

Two days--four days, and a week passed, and Brace did not see Isa. He sought all her favourite rides, and waited about for hours, but she did not come. He felt sure that somethi...

"Noo, leuke here, young man, I wadna speake to ye at all but for your cloth, for my ain brither wore the true-blue, and was lost at sea in a Kirkcaldy herring-boat, and so I alw...

Father--mother? Whom could he fly to for advice at such a time? Brace Norton asked himself. To neither. He knew what his father's counsel would be, and that his mother, while sy...

Lord George Maudlaine had been making rather a long stay at Merland; but things were, he told himself, going on very satisfactorily. Brace seemed to have been driven off, and in...

"Surely my heart would have told me, and the nature within me have revolted from such a sense of passionate love, had his cruel, his base words been true," said Brace Norton, as...

Brace Norton's heart told him truly: the noise was the grating of a diamond over glass, and it was repeated four times. Then there was a pause, ere at the end of a few minutes c...

That faint flash of light, instantaneous as it was, sufficed to pierce one of the veils that had for many years shrouded the mysteries of the past. Brace saw in that brief inter...

It was with a sense of waking from a dream that Brace Norton opened his eyes to gaze upon lights and faces dancing around him; but it was long before he could collect his though...

Die? What, with those sweet imploring eyes bidding him live?--with hope telling him that now one part of the mystery was cleared the other must soon be swept away?--with his own...

Lord Maudlaine had indeed left the Castle, but not for the reason Brace Norton had hoped. The time was getting on, and a hint or two to that effect from his friend in London had...

"Dinna be fashed with me, lassie, I ainly say what I think and feel, and I do believe that it is perhaps better things should tak' their course. If ye could ha' married the man...

The day before the wedding, and traces everywhere at Merland village of the grand doings to come, even a score of white-smocked navvies, with their rolled-up trousers, great lac...

Alexander McCray, in his excitement at being told that Brace Norton was in the hall, set down the decanter upon the carpet, where it was directly after kicked over by the under-...

Brace Norton, on his return from the marsh, had been wandering about in a strange, restless fashion; which troubled those who, unknown to himself, had been watching him keenly d...

Two months elapsed, and Merland village had almost ceased talking about the grand funeral from the Castle--"the strange berryin'"--when, after twenty long years, Lady Gernon was...

"I ha'e been thinking, Jenny," said Alexander McCray, one afternoon, when, during intervals of taking pinches of snuff, he had mixed himself a tumbler of whisky and water, where...