Thereby Hangs a Tale. Volume One

The footman made the best of his way out, and Miss Matilda inspected the well-spread breakfast table through a large, square, gold-rimmed eyeglass; walked to the sideboard, upon...

"Woa! d'ye hear? woa! I'm blest if I ever did see sich a 'oss as you are, Ratty, 'ang me if I did. If a chap could drive you without swearing, he must be a downright artch-angel...

"Ah," said Pratt, after a brisk walk, "it might have been worse; it all comes of getting on knife-boards. I never do go on a 'bus but I'm sure to meet some one I don't want to s...

Sam rattled the apron down, hopped on to his perch, chirruped to Ratty, and, for a wonder, he went decently out on to Pentonville Hill, past the Angel, along Upper Street, and r...

The words were spoken by an individual idly smoking a cigar on the steps of that gloomy-looking pile in Pall Mall known as the Peripatetics. He was the being that, go where he w...

There was just time to snatch a hasty breakfast the next morning before starting for the station, and after a short journey they mounted into the dog-cart which Humphrey had sen...

The captain would have been more elate if he had been able to follow the fortunes of Sam Jenkles's cab; for having received his instructions, Sam bowled along by Euston Square i...

Sixpence to be earned, and a scuffle for it, with the result that Richard Trevor stood a little out of the stream of passengers, stoically permitting a gentleman in an old red-s...

Frank Pratt, the successful barrister, saw a portion of the scene from the pavement outside, where he formed one of the little crowd by the awning. He had been restlessly walkin...

"Now, lookye here, old lady," said Sam, "I don't want to be hard, nor I don't want to be soft, but what I says is this here--Where's it going to end?"

Trevor stood for a moment looking round; but they were quite alone, and standing now in the lane where Mr Mervyn captured Fin Rea in the rugged tree far up the rocky bank.

Lunch at Tolcarne that day was not one of the most pleasant of meals. Sir Hampton had come in, looking purple instead of red with his walk, to pause at the hall door and dismiss...

"Now--now, look here," said Pratt, button-holing him; "don't be cross. Let me ask you this--Is it wise of you--a justice of the peace--to set your men on, right or wrong, to bre...

Richard felt very sanguine of success during the first weeks of his stay in London. He was young, ardent, active, and a good sailor. Some employment would be easily obtained, he...

Sir Hampton was right--the visitors had arrived; and almost directly after the ordinary greetings, during which Tiny never raised her eyes, and Fin was so short that Sir Hampton...

Russell Square had grown very attractive to Frank Pratt of late, and he used to smoke cigars there at all sorts of hours. He had been seen by the milk there at 6:15, railway tim...

Fin was quite right. They had not gone above a couple of hundred yards down the lane, with Mr Mervyn between them, swinging his empty soup tin, when they became aware of a loud...

"And what do you mean to do, Tiny?" said Fin, as she stood by her sister's side, dressed for the evening. "Papa told me about it, and nearly boxed my ears because I said it was...

Trevor's letter was sent off by one of the grooms by eight o'clock; for, accustomed to late watches and short nights at sea, the master of Penreife was down betimes, eagerly ins...

Matters had not been very pleasant in the neighbourhood of Mrs Lloyd that night Polly had escaped by being a prisoner; but the butler had been reduced, between fear of his wife...

It never struck Richard that some of his behaviour was verging on the Quixotic. His only thought now was that he was degraded from his high estate, and that the woman whom he ha...

Meanwhile Trevor was on his way to Tolcarne, where he was shown into the library. He felt flushed and excited, but he had come with the confidence of a conqueror; and, besides,...

"It is hard to refuse such a request," said the newcomer; "but, as trespassers, you must leave me to administer punishment. And, besides, I owe Miss Fin here a grudge. She has b...

In the course of the morning Richard grew calmer. He had a long interview with Humphrey, giving him plenty of advice as to his future proceedings; and then sending for Mr Mervyn...

"If you wish it, Hampton, of course have it; but I think the money that it will cost might very well be given to some missionary fund," said Miss Matilda.

Captain Vanleigh had declared solemnly that Penreife was "the deucedest dullest place" he ever saw in his life; and Sir Felix said it was "'nough to kill 'fler;" but, all the sa...

And the months glided on. Winter came, and in its turn gave place to the promise of spring; that came, though, with its harsh eastern blasts that threatened to extinguish the fr...

It was a difficult matter to do--to make up his mind as to the future; but after a struggle, Richard arrived at something like the course he would pursue. He must live, and he f...

"I think I have heard my brother mention it," said Aunt Matty, stiffly. "Hush, Pepine I don't bark!" when, as a matter of course, the dog barked more furiously than before.

Trevor heard it afterwards from Fin, how that mamma saw Captain Vanleigh when he called with Sir Felix; Sir Hampton leaving a note, and--so Fin declared--hiding in the gardener'...

The fact was, that Vanleigh had been in the way upon more than one occasion. When Polly had been sent for a walk in the hope of enchanting the "young master," Vanleigh had met h...

It was a hard fight, and the temptation was strong upon him to hide the truth. Humphrey would be content--he did not want to take his place; and he sat opposite to him now in th...

"Why did you come, Humphrey? Why did you hunt me out?" cried Richard, in answer to a speech made by the broad-shouldered West-country-man, who had been ushered in by Mrs Fiddison.

Trevor returned home in no very enviable frame of mind. The look Tiny Rea had given him troubled him more than he could express, and he felt ready to rail at Fortune for the tri...

Richard was pretty decided in his ways. Hotel living would not suit him now; and soon after breakfast he took his little valise, earned a look of contempt from the hotel porter...

He had been round to the stables and seen the four horses that had arrived the night before, and bullied the coachman because he had said that one of them had a splinter in its...

Frank Pratt had no sooner gone than Richard began to stride hastily up and down the little room, to the great endangering of Mrs Fiddison's furniture. As he neared the window he...

An autumn morning in a lane. A very prosaic beginning. But there are lanes and lanes; so let not the reader imagine a dreary, clayey way between two low-cropped hedges running r...

"And then such an ass as to say so out loud?" said a voice behind him; Frank Pratt having returned to the room, and his footsteps being inaudible on the thick Turkey carpet.

Richard felt very bitter as he followed Mrs Jenkles across the road. Mingled with pity for the poor girl he was about to visit, there was a sense of resentment; for she seemed t...

Frank Pratt was quite right, the Rea family were in town; and thanks to Aunt Matilda, who had sent to Captain Vanleigh a notification of all that had taken place, that gentleman...

Matters were not so pleasant, though, with the four occupants of the dining-room as Humphrey Lloyd believed. Vanleigh had his skeleton in the cupboard and was very impecunious;...

Meanwhile Trevor had gone along the lane, evidently meaning to make a call at Tolcarne. He was walking with his head bent down, thinking very deeply over what Pratt had said, wh...

"Don't mind telling you now," said Frank Pratt, sitting back in the railway carriage, with his hands under his head, and great puffs of smoke issuing from between his lips as he...

Sam Jenkles always boasted that he never kept anything from his wife; but he was silent for two days; and then, after a hard day's work, he was seated in his snug kitchen, watch...

It was a busy day at Tolcarne, that of the dinner party. The picnic had not been a success. In fact, at one time, when very much bored by the attentions of Vanleigh, Tiny had ga...

"There you are, Ratty," said Sam Jenkles, sticking a small yellow sunflower in each of his horse's blinkers, before mounting to his perch and driving out of the yard. "Now you l...

Little Polly wiped her eyes after her happy thoughts; for the shower had passed, and the gleam of sunshine augmented till her face grew dimpled, and she went on stitching busily...

Mrs Fiddison was a tall, thin lady, who was supposed to be a widow from her display of caps; but the fact was that she had no right to the matronly prefix, she being a blighted...

How long Richard lay there he did not know. To him, it seemed like a year of torment, during which, in a wildly fevered state, he went over, again and again, the narrative he ha...

"Er-rum! I--er? I--er-rum," said and coughed Sir Hampton, hesitating; but there was the hand of amity stretched out, and he was obliged to take it--moving with great dignity, an...

"Well--handsome young bailiff seen in the copse yonder; pretty girl is seen going rather hurriedly along path leading to copse; and elderly lady who holds post of housekeeper, a...

That evening Frank Pratt was busily preparing himself for a City dinner, when Richard rushed panting into the room, haggard, his face covered with perspiration, and a look of de...

Everybody said, as a matter of course, afterwards, that the whole affair was perfectly absurd, and that anybody could see with half an eye that Humphrey was not a Trevor. All th...

The weeks went on, and glided into months. Frank Pratt had been as punctual as the clock in his visits to Russell Square, but his love matters made no progress. Unless he had so...