The Vicar's People

Her name too was Charlotte, but no Werther fell in love with her when she was ingeniously trying how many square inches of bread two ounces of butter that had been warmed into o...

The old gentleman, to wit, Uncle Paul, very yellow, very clean-shaven, and carefully got up, seemed disposed to resent this bluff manner of address; but he swallowed his annoyan...

Six months had passed since the night Geoffrey Trethick saved Madge Mullion's life, and his character and his ways had become, like the failure of Wheal Carnac, matters of the p...

Mr Chynoweth was in very good spirits one morning, for he had composed a letter, offering his hand and fortune to Miss Pavey, entirely to his satisfaction. It was written in a l...

The rugged pile of rocks along by the ruins of the old mine was a favourite spot with Geoffrey in these troubled days. From hence, when he had clambered into a sheltered nook, w...

Rhoda Penwynn felt suspicious of Miss Pavey as she entered her room, blowing her nose very loudly, and then holding her handkerchief to her face, where one of her teeth was supp...

"Lovers, by all that's wonderful!" he exclaimed. "Hang 'em, they're everywhere! Fancy finding them in this out-of-the-way, forsaken place of all others in the world. Why, hang m...

Geoffrey Trethick's slumbers were very short and disturbed, and, after tossing about for some time, he got up to think out his position. The events of the past night seemed drea...

"Because it seems so sad for a young man to come down here from London, full of hopefulness and ambition, eager to succeed, and then to find his hopes wrecked in these wretched...

There was no time to lose if he intended to be present at the sale, so hastily putting a few things in a bag, Geoffrey bade Madge good-by, and brought a smile in her thin, worn...

Mr Penwynn looked at the bright flushed face, and felt as proud as he did vexed. He was seated at a writing-table, and the blotting-paper before him bore testimony to his annoya...

Bess Prawle was leaning against the rough granite door-post, very handsome, picturesque, and defiant, as she knitted away at a coarse blue worsted jersey which she was making; l...

Geoffrey strode right across the heather and stones to Horton mine, bent upon, if possible, securing the services of Pengelly if they were to be had. If not, he felt bound to ta...

Geoffrey Trethick found that his were very pleasant quarters at the cottage, for Mrs Mullion seemed to take quite a motherly interest in his welfare, while her daughter Madge fo...

There was the sound of angry words in the back part of Mrs Mullion's house that night, and more than once Geoffrey fancied he heard Uncle Paul's voice raised high, but he had so...

"Well, it is precious hard on you, Bessie," said Geoffrey. "We make a regular slave of you amongst us. Why not have a woman to come in and help? Money isn't flush: but I can pay...

Time goes by rapidly with the busy. To Geoffrey it went like lightning; to Madge Mullion it hung heavy as lead. When they met, which was seldom now, and he spoke a few kindly, c...

Time glided on, and Geoffrey had very little to encourage him. He investigated Wheal Carnac a little more, and then stopped because he could go no farther. He found life, howeve...

"Hallo, old gentleman!" said Geoffrey, and, turning aside, he entered the summer-house, where Uncle Paul sat smoking, cane in hand, with which he pointed up towards the window w...

Geoffrey Trethick had truly expressed his character when he said that he had Cornish blood in his veins, and could be as obstinate as any in the county. Whether he was descended...

"You're a nice, smooth scoundrel," said Geoffrey to himself, as he set down his glass, "and I have been drinking with you when I ought to have thrown the wine in your face, and...

"I've got Wheal Carnac on the brain," said Geoffrey, as he leaped out of his bed soon after five o'clock, made a great deal of noise and splashing over a tub, and ended by stand...

"And I tell'ee, Amos Pengelly, as you miner lads are more nasty than nice. Think of a man as calls hisself a Christian, and preaches to his fellows, buying a gashly chunk of twi...

Bessie was rather longer than usual with her mother that night, but at last the invalid was comfortably settled, and when she went back into the sitting-room the child was just...

Mr Chynoweth was seated at his desk, with the heavy flap resting upon his head. The cards were dealt out in four packs, turned up so as to be beneath his eye, and it seemed as i...

Mr Chynoweth, the banker's manager, generally known as "The Jack of Clubs," was a little man, dark, and spare, and dry. He was probably fifty, but well preserved, having apparen...

Geoffrey Trethick, as the servants had said, rose from the place where he was lying, and stood trying to think; but his brain seemed out of gear, and all he could master was the...

"I should just like to shake hands with you, sir," said Geoffrey's guide, wiping his hand carefully upon his flannel trousers after using his fingers to snuff both candles. "I n...

Rhoda Penwynn had no idea of going to Gwennas Cove one morning when she went off, in a dreamy, forgetful way, for a walk. She was low-spirited and wretched. Her father's trouble...

Geoffrey started off along the cliff with a strange feeling of dread in his breast, and as he hurried along it was with his eyes gazing down upon the shore, so that he passed wi...

"Let them talk," he muttered, "if it pleases them;" and, after a late dinner, and spending an hour or two in writing, he made up his mind to go to bed and have a good night's re...

Miner Lannoe had well made his plans, and, after abiding his time, he had arranged with a confederate to be at the shaft mouth ready to lower down the cage, when he should give...

"Of course," said the old gentleman. "Come along, boy;" and thumping the ferrule of his cane down upon the granite paving-stones, which in rough irregular masses formed the path...

His clothes had partly dried upon him during his walk, for he had fetched Dr Rumsey from his house to attend poor Madge, the doctor being very quiet and saying little, Geoffrey...

A long morning in the mine, now thoroughly cleared of water, and where, under the leadership of Dicky Pengelly, the picks were ringing merrily. Geoffrey had little good news to...

Madge kissed her child passionately again and again before replacing it in the cradle. Then she rose to steal to the door, but she could not go without running back to her helpl...

"Ah, Mr Trethick!" said the banker, quietly, as Geoffrey was ushered into his handsome study, crammed with books that he seldom read, "I hope I have not brought you up from any...

Geoffrey read it that he was to go up to. An Morlock, where he was informed that Mr Penwynn was engaged, but would be at liberty in a few minutes, and he was shown into the draw...

By this time half the town was out to watch the lugger in which John Tregenna was trying to make his escape, and, the story of his wrong-doing having passed from lip to lip, the...

They were busy days which followed for Geoffrey Trethick, and his interviews with Mr Penwynn, in consequence of the latter's desire to keep his name out of the project, were of...

His way lay through the principal street, and as he was passing the hotel it suddenly struck him that he had had a terrible night, and that he was half-starved.

Geoffrey came swinging along the path, with his head thrown back and his chest forward, smiling at something that crossed his mind, when he stopped short, for Amos Pengelly sudd...

"She's better, Trethick, much better," said Uncle Paul. "Poor child! I thought it was going to be a case of madness. But sit down, man, I've just got a fresh batch of the old ch...

"Thank you, Trethick," said Mr Penwynn, the next morning, and he looked very calm and stern as he spoke, "I expected this, for my daughter told me all last night. I might have k...

Rhoda Penwynn's visitor was in the drawing-room at An Morlock, making the most use possible of her eyes while she was alone. She had seen who had called and left cards, and what...

"It's all four, sir," said the driver, giving his long whip a _whish_ through the air, making the leaders of the four-horse coach shake their heads and increase their speed, as...

"You see, you are quite a stranger," said the old gentleman, in a kind of gruff apology; "and I'm obliged to look after that poor woman's interests. Now, then," he continued, le...

They were busy days for Geoffrey Trethick and his factotum Pengelly, who hardly gave himself time to rest. The visit to Mr Penwynn that next morning had resulted in the informat...

"Oh, there's no 'zaggeration 'bout it," said the man. "I've kept an eye on it all ever since the mine was dried, just as you wished, and they was getting nothing but rubbish, ti...

"Well, Mr Paul," said Geoffrey, speaking in his bluff, frank way; "I said I would never come back to this house till you sent for me, and I have kept my word."

She knew that it must come, and, in spite of a feeling of dread, she felt almost glad, when, seating himself beside her, he began, with plenty of calm, quiet assurance, to plead...

John Tregenna had at once taken advantage of the proposal that he should still be on friendly terms with the Penwynns, and, calling frequently and dining there, set himself, in...

There were plenty of heads thrust out of the granite cottages on either side of the steep way as Geoffrey strode on, ready to give back frank, open look for curious gaze, and to...

There was something about the poor girl he liked, for she was simple-hearted and loving to a degree, and he would often sit in the next room apparently busy writing, but watchin...

"You are an extremely handsome young woman, and I like the bright, intelligent look in your eyes," said Geoffrey Trethick to himself; "but I'll swear you have got a temper."

Busy times in Wheal Carnac. There had been plenty of visitors in the shape of managers of different mines, to whom the news had come; and all went away astounded at the wealth o...

It was too late to go up to An Morlock on the night of the discovery; but Geoffrey Trethick was there by breakfast-time, to find Rhoda in the morning-room, and Mr Penwynn not ye...

"Here, speak out," cried Geoffrey excitedly, as he hurried with old Prawle down towards the cliff. "What is it? What do you mean?" and as the old man hurriedly recited all he kn...

The man rose softly then from his hands and knees, rubbing the former to get rid of the dirt that might be clinging there, and then taking out a white handkerchief to brush his...

"I always did believe in her," cried Amos Pengelly proudly, as he saw, some six months later, the rich copper ore being brought up in a mighty yield from out of Wheal Carnac.

The threatening storm was giving abundant promise that it would soon visit Carnac; and warned by its harbingers, the various red-sailed luggers were making fast for the little p...

"Poor lass!" said Geoffrey, as he walked in the direction of Pengelly's cottage. "They'd have half killed her. I wish I had hit those fellows harder. It will frighten the poor o...