Vivian's Lesson

‘Well, so we will; but it is only five-and-twenty past now, so we have plenty of time for one turn more. Come on, old stupid; you are always frightened of being late;’ and the y...

CHRISTMAS Day dawned clear and bright. All prospects of a thaw seemed to be gone, for the frost had been very keen during the night, and every little twig on the trees glittered...

The following morning the boys were downstairs twenty minutes before any one else, and it seemed as if Ellen would never bring in the coffee; while so many important messages ca...

THE next day was a busy one. In the morning the gardener brought in a load of evergreens; and while Aunt Dora and the maids prepared the long table in the dining-room, and super...

BREAKFAST was late next morning, for it had been nearly midnight before the party was over and the last of the guests had gone, so Aunt Dora had made the welcome announcement, w...

First came the garden with the greenhouses and vineries, with a large tennis-green at the side, then two small paddocks almost large enough to be honoured by the name of fields,...

‘WELL, chickens,’ said Mrs Osbourne, as she came into the schoolroom about half-past four, ‘and what have you been doing all afternoon? Did you think I had gone off altogether a...

‘I HOPE you won’t be lonely, Pussy,’ said Mrs Osbourne, looking into Isobel’s bedroom for a moment on her way to dress for church. ‘I would have stayed at home with you myself i...

THERE, to his horror, looking through the gap which had been filled by Claude’s spring window, and framed, as it were, by the jagged points of glass which were still sticking to...

NEXT morning Vivian awoke to find Ronald standing on a chair peering through a crevice of the blind. The remembrance of yesterday’s disaster flashed into his mind, and he was wi...

WHEN Vivian came to himself he was lying flat on his back on his bed upstairs, and some one was bathing his head with cold water, while Mary stood by the side of the bed holding...

THE doctor’s prophecy proved true, for after a game of hockey on the Heath with Ralph and Ronald and one or two other lads whom they met, and whom Ralph knew, Vivian felt like a...

TO the end of their lives Ronald and Vivian never forgot that journey home. For one thing, they had never travelled in the dark before, and everything looked strange and unreal.

WHEN Ronald returned from the nursery, some ten minutes later, he was surprised to find that the room was in darkness, and that Vivian had not begun to undress, for as a rule he...

THOROUGHLY worn out by all he had gone through, it was late next morning before Vivian awoke. As his eye fell on his empty bed he wondered drowsily what had happened, and why he...

‘THE young gentleman not there? Why, sir, that’s impossible,’ said the cabman, astonishment written on every feature of his honest red face, as the excited doctor jumped out of...

SPRING comes early in Brittany, and by the end of May the apple-blossom is already almost over, while the hedgerows on each side of the smooth, broad roads are one tangled glory...

FOR another hour or two Pierre lay still in the sun, munching his black bread slowly, and keeping a watchful eye on Nanette; then he suddenly bethought himself that if he went t...

PIERRE went on running as fast as he could until he was quite sure that he was out of sight of the place where he had left Nanette, so that, even if the old woman missed him, an...

IT was just after lunch, and Monsieur the Vicomte de Choisigny had drunk his coffee, which in summer was always carried out to a table in a vine-covered arbour, just by the wind...

‘TIENS!’ said old Monsieur Croite, the family doctor and trusted friend of the Choisigny family, who had been hastily summoned from Dinard, and who stood looking down at his lit...

Ten days had passed since the operation, and the boy was recovering rapidly. At his last visit, Dr Jules had pronounced him out of danger, and had predicted that he would be abl...

THE whole of the next day Vivian lay under the lime-tree, hardly speaking at all, a look of happy expectancy on his face. All his dread of meeting his parents seemed to have van...

Dr Armitage had soon to go back to his work; but Vivian’s mother stayed with him for a whole month, until he was almost quite well and able to run about the beautiful grounds of...

IT is a far cry from Dinard to the west of Cornwall; and by the time they were nearing their destination on the second day of their journey both boys were feeling rather tired....