Winefred: A Story of the Chalk Cliffs

Not till evening was setting in was it possible for any to cross the gulf and reach the subsided portion. The chasm itself was some three hundred and sixty feet across, and into...

The maid-servant at the house round the corner opened the door in response to a sharp ring and an imperious rap, though they came at an unprecedented hour at night.

Jack had found work, or it had been found for him. Whilst Winefred had been settling into new quarters at Bath he had been finding a temporary home and occupation at Beer. It ha...

Mr. Holwood was unable to sleep that night. Before leaving the ferryman's house he had resolved to depart for town by the coach on the morrow, and he had given orders to be call...

As soon as Winefred had eaten something, had changed her dress, and cleaned her face and hands of the soil that had adhered to them, Mrs. Marley despatched her to Bindon to info...

When Olver Dench reached his cottage, that stood but little removed from the landing-stage of the ferry, on the Seaton side of the water, he was much surprised to find that his...

For a while a feverish delight and pride in her new possession filled Jane Marley to the exclusion of every other sensation. For the first time in her life she was mistress of a...

The frantic woman lay in a heap at the door, crouching against it, in such a tumult of brain and heart, of distress at the loss of her child, and rage against the captain, that...

'Well, mate!' shouted Olver, the ferryman, entering the house with a swagger, and casting his cap on the table. 'I'm come to spend the evenin' with you. Dang it, in November, th...

The funeral of Captain Rattenbury was conducted with that pomp and circumstance so dear to the West Country heart. The entire neighbourhood attended from both sides of the estua...

After a tedious journey, such as travellers had to undergo at the beginning of the century, whether they journeyed by coach, or by private carriage with post horses, Mrs. Jose a...

Almost before she had recovered her senses, Winefred found herself in a cottage, warm, where a good fire burnt, throwing out waves of yellow light as well as grateful heat, and...

One grey, uncertain afternoon in November, when the vapour-laden skies were without a rent, and the trailing clouds, without a fringe, were passing imperceptibly into drizzle, t...

'Jack!――You! Your father has been betrayed. I overheard the officer from Lyme arranging to take you all. He has sent for the soldiers. He knows that you are to meet the carts at...

'It is costly, my dear, as it is plated, but not so costly as it would be were it silver. Happily, at a dinner party the guests cannot examine it for the plate mark, as they can...

'Only Mrs. Jose is going to have a Christmas party for her servants and farm labourers, and she always on these occasions invites the young folk of Axmouth, and has the church m...

Jack Rattenbury found that a good many bills descended on him after his father's funeral. He had no means of checking them, as he had not come on any account-book, but he had li...

Jack had worked diligently in the office all day. He had been late in arriving, but he apologised, told the truth about his adventure, and promised to work overtime so as to mak...

The day was pleasant, the sun shone, and the spring buds were swelling. In Bath vegetation is in advance of that elsewhere. The crocus was passing and the daffodil was coming on.

The night was not dark. Mrs. Jose had purposely chosen one on which the almanack informed her there would be a moon, so that the young people might not have to return in the dar...

Jane Marley sat before the door in the shade of a bursting elder, in an atmosphere perfumed by its leaves; the sun was on the white rock against which the cottage was built, and...

'It is always your duty when I forget to do it. I shall be ready instantly. Winefred――I understand that is your Christian name, and a very charming name it is――we will drop form...

Delighted with her watch, Winefred curled herself up behind the mass of rock so as to be sheltered from the cutting east wind, that in comparative comfort she might watch the mo...

'O mother! I have done wrong. I was desirous of procuring a pair of choughs. No one would trouble himself, and risk his neck to get them for me but Jack Rattenbury, and he will...

She turned from the village, and walked along the shingly way to the water's edge. The Axe flows into the sea through a trough washed out of the blood-red sandstone that comes t...

'True――we must remain in suspense. Or shall we inquire at the principal hotels? This will be quite an accession to our circle, and a heightening of our pleasure. All the more re...

For the first time for many years the old buck held up his head and strutted proudly. He had the handle of his rattan to his mouth. His white beaver hat sat jauntily on his head...

On her return to Rattenbury's cottage, Winefred was thrown into a dubious condition of mind. She had purposed to confide everything to her mother, to tell her about the present...

Engaged in the selection of pebbles, she did not observe the approach of Mr. Holwood; and the rush of the inflowing wave, and the under rattle of the retreat, as the water drew...

Jane Marley was roused from her sleep before dawn by the sound of some one entering the house. Then she heard the door being locked and barred, and a heavy tread was on the stair.

Mrs. T.-J. was troubled in mind. She had entered into negotiations with a butler to be maintained at Winefred's expense. She was vastly alarmed lest the sudden whim to go to Bin...

If this story were baseless, as possibly it was, then both women must feel acutely having so gross an act of dishonesty laid to their charge, and be predisposed to look upon him...

The excitement of the funeral and sale was over, and a sense of solitariness weighed on the lad. He had no relatives. There were connections at Beer, but these were all more or...

The search outside the house proved as barren of results as had been that within. The undercliff was so broken as to offer many places in which with ingenuity and some labour re...

The carpet-bag was light, portable, and capacious. It was a contrivance for the convenience of travellers upon which we have not improved, and yet it has been relegated to the l...

Jane could not sound Winefred's heart. She was in doubt whether the girl intended to abandon her and adhere to her father, or whether she proposed to pay her occasional visits....

When the doctor arrived he gave no hope of permanent improvement. The captain, said he, must be kept quiet; supposing that nothing were allowed to agitate him, he might in part...

Jane Marley was at the kneading trough, with her sleeves tucked up, and her hands in the dough, when a shadow thrown upon her made her look up, and she saw Olver Dench at the wi...

At the same moment, as Jane was on the threshold and about to shut the door behind her, Winefred appeared, but Winefred so covered with soil, so be-chalked, as to be hardly reco...

'Yes, but I have got the choughs. Mother, I have been endeavouring to make amends for a cruel wrong that has been done. I have been guilty in risking a life for a fancy.'

'If you desire to know more, it is that he said, or perhaps it is more true to say he has caused it to be said, that mother is well off and able to send me here, because she sto...

All creation is in scale from the animated germ to the man, through all the ranges of invertebrate and vertebrate life. And man is not a culminating superlative, for mankind is...

The rain and easterly wind ceased towards dawn. When morning broke a haze hung over sea and land that slowly lifted but never wholly vanished, and left the landscape bathed in t...

A certain amount of constraint existed between them, and yet he had lost much of his timidity of manner since he had been forced to avow the nature of his relation to Jane. The...

Mrs. Marley rose, went into the kitchen to the larder, and brought in food, which she set on the table, but Winefred made a motion of refusal. 'I am not hungry, I cannot eat.'

Winefred and her father were on their way to the down, passing up from Axmouth through Bindon, when Mrs. Jose appeared in the archway that gives access to the court, and saluted...

A rap at the front door, followed by a ring, and then a card was brought up by the servant and presented to Mrs. Tomkin-Jones on a blistered Japan tray.

The lapse into unconsciousness was but momentary――it was like the shock produced by a crash of thunder attended with a blinding blaze of the electric fluid――that stuns for an in...

Winefred went down the street in the direction of the curate's house. She encountered the reverend gentleman. He was somewhat shabby in dress, his boots were worn, and his neckc...

'You must rejoin your men. Leave me. Your way is to the mouth of the Axe, and mine――I will go along the beach till I reach the path to the station――no, I dare not go that way. S...