Whiteladies

It was an old manor-house, not a deserted convent, as you might suppose by the name. The conventual buildings from which no doubt the place had taken its name, had dropped away,...

“I heard you, boy. If you choose to whistle ‘_Ce que je desire_’ through St. Austin’s parish, you may make up your mind to be recognized. Ah! you make me think of my poor childr...

The girls went out into the old corridor, leaving the great carved door of the dining-hall open behind them. The flutter of their pretty dresses filled the picturesque passage w...

Everard Austin remained at Whiteladies for the rest of the afternoon--he was like one of the children of the house. The old servants took him aside and asked him to mention thin...

In all relationships, as I have already said--and it is not an original saying--there is one who is active and one who is passive,--“_L’unqui baise et l’autre qui tend la joue_,...

The breakfast-table was spread in the smaller dining-room, a room furnished with quaint old furniture like the hall, which looked out upon nothing but the grass and trees of the...

Susan Austin said no more about her intended expedition, except to Martha, who had orders to prepare for the journey, and who was thrown into an excitement somewhat unbecoming h...

I cannot tell the reader what was the conversation that ensued between Miss Susan and Madame Austin of Bruges, because the two naturally shut themselves up by themselves, and de...

“Ah, mon Dieu, what can I say, Reine? To be a little better in his state is often to be worst of all. You have not seen so much as I have. Often, very often, there is a gleam of...

This little scene took place in the village of Kandersteg, at the foot of the hills, exactly on the day when Miss Susan executed her errand in the room behind the shop, in low-l...

“Reine, is it long since you heard from Aunt Susan? Look here, I don’t want her tender little notes to the invalid. I am tired of always recollecting that I am an invalid. When...

Herbert continued much better next day. It had done him good to be out, and already François, with that confidence in all simple natural remedies which the French, and indeed al...

Miss Susan’s absence from home had been a very short one--she left and returned within the week; and during this time matters went on very quietly at Whiteladies. The servants h...

Miss Susan came home on the Saturday night. She was very tired, and saw no one that evening; but Martha, her old maid, who returned into attendance upon her natural mistress at...

Mr. Farrel-Austin lived in a house which was called the Hatch, though I cannot tell what is the meaning of the name. It was a modern house, like hundreds of others, solid and ug...

“Papa has just heard that Herbert Austin, who has Whiteladies, you know--our place that is to be--is much better; and he is low about it,” said Sophy. “Of course, if Herbert wer...

After affairs had come to the point described in our last chapter, when Miss Susan had committed herself openly to her scheme for the discomfiture of Farrel-Austin, and that per...

Madame de Mirfleur had more anxieties connected with her first family than merely the illness of her son; she had also the fate of her daughter to think of, and I am not sure th...

Everard was too late, as might have been expected, for the table d’hôte. When he reached the village, very tired after his long walk, he met the diners there, strolling about in...

I do not know that English doctors have the gift of recommending those pleasant simple fictions of treatment which bring their patient face to face with nature, and give that gr...

The news of Herbert’s second rally, and the hopeful state in which he was, did not create so great a sensation among his relations as the first had done. The people who were not...

About two years after the events I have just described, in the Autumn, when life was low and dreary at Whiteladies, a new and unexpected visitor arrived at the old house. Herber...

“Here is some one, Susan, who knows you,” said Augustine, introducing the newcomer into the drawing-room where her sister sat. It was a wainscoted room, very handsome and warm i...

The night was terrible for this peaceful household in a more extended sense than that deep misery which the arrival of the stranger cost Miss Susan. Those quiet people, mistress...

Miss Susan Austin was not altogether devoid in ordinary circumstances of one very common feminine weakness to which independent women are especially liable. She had the old-fash...

The evening which followed was most uncomfortable. Good M. Guillaume--divided between curiosity and the sense of novelty with which he found himself in a place so unlike his ide...

Miss Susan felt that it was beyond doubt the work of Providence to increase her punishment that Everard should arrive as he did quite unexpectedly on the evening of this day. M....

The dinner-table in the old hall was surrounded by a very odd party that night. Miss Susan, at the head of the table, in the handsome matronly evening dress which she took to al...

“Going to stay till Herbert comes back! but, my dear Aunt Susan, since you don’t want her--and of course you don’t want her--why don’t you say so?” cried Everard. “An unwelcome...

Miss Susan entered the drawing-room in the same dim light in which Everard had left it. She was irritable and impatient in her misery. She would have liked to turn up all the la...

Giovanna possessed that quality which is commonly called common-sense, though I doubt if she was herself aware of it. She had never before been in a position in which this good...

The Winter passed slowly, as Winters do, especially in the silence of the country, where little happens to mark their course. The Autumnal fall of leaves lasted long, but at len...

Herbert and Reine had settled at Cannes for the Winter, at the same time when Giovanna settled herself at Whiteladies. They knew very little of this strange inmate in their old...

The effect of this conversation, however, did not end as the talk itself did. Reine thought of little else all the rest of the day. When they got to the beach, Madame de Mirfleu...

Everard’s excited mood, however, did not last; perhaps he danced out some of his bitterness; violent exercise is good for all violent feeling, and calms it down. He came to hims...

Reine did not go back from her resolution; she did not change her mind, as her mother expected, and forgive Herbert’s étourderie. Reine could not look upon it as étourderie, and...

Everard and Herbert made their tour through Italy without very much heart for the performance; but partly out of pride, partly because, when once started on a _giro_ of any kind...

“Me! I am nobody,” said Giovanna. “Ces dames have been very kind to me. I was the son’s widow, the left-out one at home. Does mademoiselle understand? But then you can never hav...

Next day was the day of the great dinner to which Miss Susan had invited half the county, to welcome the young master of the house, and mark the moment of her own withdrawal fro...

The evening came to an end at last. The great people went first, as became them, filling the rural roads with the ponderous rumble of their great carriages and gleam of their la...

“Going away?” said Giovanna. “M. ’Erbert, you go away already? is it that Viteladies is what you call dull? You have been here so short of time, you do not yet know.”

There had been great preparations made for Herbert’s reception at the Hatch. I say Herbert’s--for Reine, though she had been perforce included in the invitation, was not even co...

I need not follow day by day the course of Herbert’s life. Though the brother and sister went out a good deal together at first, being asked to all the great houses in the neigh...

What a dismal conclusion it was of so merry a day! Herbert walked into the house, leaning upon Everard’s arm, and when some wine had been administered to him, declared himself b...

Giovanna looked at Miss Susan with surprise, then with a little apprehension. It was her turn to be uneasy. “Que voulez-vous? que voulez-vous dire?” she said under her breath, e...

When a number of people have suddenly been brought together accidentally by such an extraordinary incident as that I have attempted to describe, it is almost as difficult for th...

I need not say that the condition of Whiteladies that evening was about as uncomfortable as could be conceived. Before dinner--a ceremonial at which Everard alone officiated, wi...

Herbert came into the drawing-room almost immediately after Giovanna left. Francis had watched the carriage go off, and I suppose he thought that Giovanna was in it with the oth...