Category: Romance
WHEN I was a very young man nothing used to surprise me more than the existence of a very old one—one of those patriarchs who, instead of linking the generations ‘each with each,’ include two or three in their protracted span; a habit which runs in families, as in the case of...
WHEN Mr. Erin had closed the door behind him there was silence among those he had left; Dennis and Margaret naturally looked to William Henry for an explanation of so singular a...
13. CHAPTER XIII.TWO days after Margaret’s letter was despatched there was great news from the Temple. Not even on the first day, when William Henry had won Mr. Erin’s heart by Shakespeare’s not...
5. CHAPTER V.WILLIAM HENRY, far from sharing his father’s enthusiasm at any time, was on this occasion less than ever inclined to applaud it. If Clopton House should be found full of Shakesp...
7. CHAPTER VII.THE effects of a prolonged holiday upon the human mind are various. Like other things much ‘recommended by the faculty,’ it does not suit every one. It is the opinion of an emin...
3. CHAPTER III.THERE is one spot, and only one, in all England, which can in any general sense be called hallowed—sacred to the memory of departed man. Priests and kings have done their best f...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.IT was not till his visitors had gone that their host seemed to become fully conscious of the gravity of their errand. While the mind is clouded with doubt it is impossible for...
4. CHAPTER IV.I AM afraid it is rather taken for granted by parents in general, as regards any behaviour they may adopt towards their offspring, that religion is always upon their own side. A...
2. CHAPTER II.A FEW years ago it would have been almost impossible for modern readers to imagine what a coach journey used to be in the good old times; but, thanks to certain gilded youths, m...
15. CHAPTER XV.THE members of the little household in Norfolk Street were now in great content. That word, indeed, scarcely describes the state of mind of the head of the house, who was litera...
6. CHAPTER VI.IN the case of crime, every person who is concerned in its detection looks very properly to motive: the law, indeed, in its award of punishment, disregards it, but then, as a fa...
12. CHAPTER XII.GREAT as had been Mr. Erin’s joy when he first looked on Shakespeare’s love-lock and love letter, it by no means wore off—as our violent delights are apt to do—as time went on....
9. CHAPTER IX.ALTHOUGH it may be very true that kings can affect but little the happiness of their subjects, the petty kings of every household—from Paterfamilias the First down to his latest...
16. CHAPTER XVI.IT was significant of the sensitiveness of Mr. Erin’s feelings in regard to his new-found treasures, though it by no means indicated any want of soundness in his faith, that he...
17. CHAPTER XVII.A GREAT poet has sung of a certain tea-party as sitting ‘all silent and all damned,’ which is going pretty far as a description of social cheerlessness; but they were at tea, an...
11. CHAPTER XI.WHETHER William Henry’s short method with Mr. Reginald Talbot was to be satisfactory or not remains to be seen, but for the present it had all the effect intended. The inmate of...
10. CHAPTER X.‘There it is again,’ cried Talbot; ‘I say once more, what is the meaning of it? The idea of your respectable father permitting us to smoke under his roof. Why, it was only, as i...
14. CHAPTER XIV.NOTWITHSTANDING the powerful motives in connection with its munificent but unknown donor that impelled Mr. Samuel Erin to keep ‘the Profession of Faith’ a secret confined to his...
1. CHAPTER I.WHEN I was a very young man nothing used to surprise me more than the existence of a very old one—one of those patriarchs who, instead of linking the generations ‘each with each...