It is not true that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet. Were it true, I should call this story The Great Orley Farm Case. But who would ask for the ninth number of a serial work burdened wit...

I trust that it is already perceived by all persistent novel readers that very much of the interest of this tale will be centred in the person of Lady Mason. Such educated persons, however, will proba...

I have said that Sir Peregrine Orme was not a rich man, meaning thereby that he was not a rich man considering his acknowledged position in the county. Such men not uncommonly have their tens, twelves...

Going to Leicestershire was quite out of the question for young Orme at this period of his life, but going to London unfortunately was not so. He had become acquainted at Oxford with a gentleman of gr...

We left Lady Mason very grateful at the end of the last chapter for the promise made to her by Sir Peregrine with reference to her son; but there was still a weight on Lady Mason’s mind. They say that...

Mr. Samuel Dockwrath was a little man, with sandy hair, a pale face, and stone-blue eyes. In judging of him by appearance only and not by the ear, one would be inclined to doubt that he could be a ver...

Groby Park is about seven miles from Leeds, in the direction of Bradford, and thither on the morning after the scene described in the last chapter Mr. Dockwrath was driven in one of the gigs belonging...

Though Mr. Dockwrath was somewhat elated by this invitation to lunch, he was also somewhat abashed by it. He had been far from expecting that Mr. Mason of Groby Park would do him any such honour, and ...

On the whole Mr. Dockwrath was satisfied with the results of his trip to Groby Park, and was in a contented frame of mind as he was driven back to Leeds. No doubt it would have been better could he ha...

I will now ask my readers to come with me up to London, in order that I may introduce them to the family of the Furnivals. We shall see much of the Furnivals before we reach the end of our present und...

Lucius Mason on his road to Liverpool had passed through London, and had found a moment to call in Harley Street. Since his return from Germany he had met Miss Furnival both at home at his mother’s ho...

Mr. Furnival’s chambers were on the first floor in a very dingy edifice in Old Square, Lincoln’s Inn. This square was always dingy, even when it was comparatively open and served as the approach from ...

Unfortunately for Mr. Furnival, the intruder was Mrs. Furnival⁠—whether he pleased or whether he did not please. There she was in his law chamber, present in the flesh, a sight pleasing neither to her...

Lady Mason on her return from London found a note from Mrs. Orme asking both her and her son to dine at The Cleeve on the following day. As it had been already settled between her and Sir Peregrine th...

On the following day Lady Mason made two visits, using her new vehicle for the first time. She would fain have walked had she dared; but she would have given terrible offence to her son by doing so. H...

Mr. Dockwrath, as he left Leeds and proceeded to join the bosom of his family, was not discontented with what he had done. It might not improbably have been the case that Mr. Mason would altogether re...

It will be remembered that Mr. Crabwitz was sent across from Lincoln’s Inn to Bedford Row to ascertain the present address of old Mr. Round. “Mr. Round is at Birmingham,” he said, coming back. “Everyo...

On the following morning, before breakfast, Felix Graham and Augustus Staveley prepared themselves for the labours of the coming day by a walk into the country; for even at Birmingham, by perseverance...

The next two months passed by without any events which deserve our special notice, unless it be that Mr. Joseph Mason and Mr. Dockwrath had a meeting in the room of Mr. Matthew Round, in Bedford Row. ...

In the conversation which had taken place after dinner at Noningsby with regard to the Masons Peregrine Orme took no part, but his silence had not arisen from any want of interest on the subject. He h...

It seems singular to me myself, considering the idea which I have in my own mind of the character of Lady Staveley, that I should be driven to declare that about this time she committed an unpardonabl...

The house at Noningsby on Christmas-day was quite full, and yet it was by no means a small house. Mrs. Arbuthnot, the judge’s married daughter, was there, with her three children; and Mr. Furnival was...

Christmas-day was always a time of very great trial to Mrs. Mason of Groby Park. It behoved her, as the wife of an old English country gentleman, to spread her board plenteously at that season, and in...

We will now look in for a moment at the Christmas doings of our fat friend, Mr. Moulder. Mr. Moulder was a married man living in lodgings over a wine-merchant’s vaults in Great St. Helens. He was bles...

The Christmas doings at The Cleeve were not very gay. There was no visitor there, except Lady Mason, and it was known that she was in trouble. It must not, however, be supposed that she constantly bew...

A day or two after his conversation with Crabwitz, as described in the last chapter, Mr. Furnival was driven up to the door of Sir Peregrine Orme’s house in a Hamworth fly. He had come over by train f...

Lucius Mason was still staying at Noningsby when Mr. Furnival made his visit to Sir Peregrine, and on that afternoon he received a note from his mother. Indeed, there were three notes passed between t...

During these days Peregrine Orme⁠—though he was in love up to his very chin, seriously in love, acknowledging this matter to himself openly, pulling his hair in the retirement of his bedroom, and reso...

“There’s a double ditch and bank that will do as well,” Miss Tristram had said when she was informed that there was no gate out of the wood at the side on which the fox had broken. The gentleman who h...

Felix Graham had plenty of nurses, but Madeline was not one of them. Augustus Staveley came home while the Alston doctor was still busy at the broken bones, and of course he would not leave his friend...

“Upon my word I am very sorry,” said the judge. “But what made him go off so suddenly? I hope there’s nobody ill at The Cleeve!” And then the judge took his first spoonful of soup. “No, no; there is n...

It has been said in the earlier pages of this story that there was no prettier scenery to be found within thirty miles of London than that by which the little town of Hamworth was surrounded. This was...

In speaking of the character and antecedents of Felix Graham I have said that he was moulding a wife for himself. The idea of a wife thus moulded to fit a man’s own grooves, and educated to suit matri...

“And you think that nothing can be done down there?” said Mr. Furnival to his clerk, immediately after the return of Mr. Crabwitz from Hamworth to London. “Nothing at all, sir,” said Mr. Crabwitz, wit...

Why should I not? Such had been the question which Sir Peregrine Orme had asked himself over and over again, in these latter days, since Lady Mason had been staying at his house; and the purport of th...

Lucius Mason at this time was living at home at Orley Farm, not by any means in a happy frame of mind. It will be perhaps remembered that he had at one time had an interview with Mr. Furnival in that ...

In the last chapter Peregrine Orme called at Orley Farm with the view of discussing with Lucius Mason the conduct of their respective progenitors; and, as will be remembered, the young men agreed in a...

The dinner on that day at The Cleeve was not very dull. Peregrine had some hopes that the idea of the marriage might be abandoned, and was at any rate much better disposed towards Lady Mason than he h...

“I am well aware, Mr. Staveley, that you are one of those gentlemen who amuse themselves by frequently saying such things to girls. I had learned your character in that respect before I had been in th...

“Oh indeed!” Those had been the words with which Mr. Furnival had received the announcement made by Sir Peregrine as to his proposed nuptials. And as he uttered them the lawyer drew himself up stiffly...

“I will not consent to live with you while such deeds as these are being done.” Such were the last words which Mrs. Furnival spoke as she walked out of her own drawing-room, leaving her husband still ...

When John Kenneby dined with his sister and brother-in-law on Christmas-day he agreed, at the joint advice of the whole party there assembled, that he would go down and see Mr. Dockwrath at Hamworth, ...

“She’s as sweet a temper, John, as ever stirred a lump of sugar in her tea,” said Mrs. Moulder to her brother, as they sat together over the fire in Great St. Helen’s on that same evening⁠—after his r...

Lady Mason returned to The Cleeve after her visit to Mr. Furnival’s chambers, and nobody asked her why she had been to London or whom she had seen. Nothing could be more gracious than the deference wh...

I venture to think, I may almost say to hope, that Lady Mason’s confession at the end of the last chapter will not have taken anybody by surprise. If such surprise be felt I must have told my tale bad...

Sir Peregrine after the hour that he had spent with his daughter-in-law⁠—that terrible hour during which Lady Mason had sat alone on the bedside⁠—returned to the library and remained there during the ...

And now we will go back to Noningsby. On that evening Graham ate his pheasant with a relish although so many cares sat heavy on his mind, and declared, to Mrs. Baker’s great satisfaction, that the coo...

On the following morning, according to appointment, the judge visited Felix Graham in his room. It was only the second occasion on which he had done so since the accident, and he was therefore more in...

When Lady Mason last left the chambers of her lawyer in Lincoln’s Inn, she was watched by a stout lady as she passed through the narrow passage leading from the Old to the New Square. That fact will I...

All was now sadness at The Cleeve. It was soon understood among the servants that there was to be no marriage, and the tidings spread from the house, out among the neighbours and into Hamworth. But no...

When Peregrine got back to The Cleeve he learned that there was a lady with his mother. He had by this time partially succeeded in reasoning himself out of his despondency. He had learned at any rate ...

Yes, Lady Staveley had known it before. She had given a fairly correct guess at the state of her daughter’s affections, though she had not perhaps acknowledged to herself the intensity of her daughter...

Lady Mason remained at The Cleeve for something more than a week after that day on which she made her confession, during which time she was fully committed to take her trial at the next assizes at Als...

When Felix Graham left Noningsby and made his way up to London, he came at least to one resolution which he intended to be an abiding one. That idea of a marriage with a moulded wife should at any rat...

“Tom, I’ve come back again,” said Mrs. Furnival, as soon as the dining-room door was closed behind her back. “I’m very glad to see you; I am indeed,” said he, getting up and putting out his hand to he...

In the meantime Sir Peregrine was sitting at home trying to determine in what way he should act under the present emergency, actuated as he was on one side by friendship and on the other by duty. For ...

Felix Graham, when he left poor Mary Snow, did not go on immediately to the doctor’s shop. He had made up his mind that Mary Snow should never be his wife, and therefore considered it wise to lose no ...

The house at Noningsby was now very quiet. All the visitors had gone, including even the Arbuthnots. Felix Graham and Sophia Furnival, that terrible pair of guests, had relieved Mrs. Staveley of their...

Sir Peregrine Orme had gone up to London, had had his interview with Mr. Round, and had failed. He had then returned home, and hardly a word on the subject had been spoken between him and Mrs. Orme. I...

Every day Mrs. Orme went up to Orley Farm and sat for two hours with Lady Mason. We may say that there was now no longer any secret between them, and that she whose life had been so innocent, so pure,...

The day of the trial was now quickly coming on, and the London world, especially the world of lawyers, was beginning to talk much on the subject. Men about the Inns of Court speculated as to the verdi...

I have spoken of the state of public opinion as to Lady Mason’s coming trial, and have explained that for the most part men’s thoughts and sympathies took part with her. But I cannot say that such was...

The eve of the trial had now come, and still there had been no confidence between the mother and the son. No words of kindness had been spoken with reference to that terrible event which was so near a...

At that time Sir Richard Leatherham was the Solicitor-general, and he had been retained as leading counsel for the prosecution. It was quite understood by all men who did understand what was going on ...

“If you love the man, let him come.” It was thus that the judge had declared to his daughter his opinion of what had better be done in that matter of Felix Graham. Then he had gone on to declare that ...

It is a great thing for young ladies to live in a household in which free correspondence by letter is permitted. “Two for mamma, four for Amelia, three for Fanny, and one for papa.” When the postman h...

As the day of the trial drew nigh, the perturbation of poor John Kenneby’s mind became very great. Moulder had not intended to frighten him, but had thought it well to put him up to what he believed t...

And now the judge was there on the bench, the barristers and the attorneys were collected, the prisoner was seated in their presence, and the trial was begun. As is usual in cases of much public momen...

Felix Graham as he left the Alston courthouse on the close of the first day of the trial was not in a happy state of mind. He did not actually accuse himself of having omitted any duty which he owed t...

When the first day’s work was over in the court, Lady Mason and Mrs. Orme kept their seats till the greater part of the crowd had dispersed, and the two young men, Lucius Mason and Peregrine, remained...

On the next morning they were all in their places at ten o’clock, and the crowd had been gathered outside the doors of the court from a much earlier hour. As the trial progressed the interest in it in...

All this as may be supposed disturbed Felix Graham not a little. He perceived that each of those two witnesses had made a great effort to speak the truth;⁠—an honest, painful effort to speak the truth...

It was late when that second day’s work was over, and when Mrs. Orme and Lady Mason again found themselves in the Hamworth carriage. They had sat in court from ten in the morning till past seven, with...

Judge Staveley, whose court had not been kept sitting to a late hour by any such eloquence as that of Mr. Furnival, had gone home before the business of the other court had closed. Augustus, who was h...

Mrs. Orme was up very early on that last morning of the trial, and had dressed herself before Lady Mason was awake. It was now March, but yet the morning light was hardly sufficient for her as she wen...

It was all over now, and as Lucius had said to his mother, there was nothing left for them but to go and hide themselves. The verdict had reached him before his mother’s return, and on the moment of h...

On the evening but one after the trial was over Mr. Moulder entertained a few friends to supper at his apartments in Great St. Helen’s, and it was generally understood that in doing so he intended to ...

“I should have done my duty by you, Mr. Mason, which those men have not, and you would at this moment have been the owner of Orley Farm.” It will easily be known that these words were spoken by Mr. Do...

“That letter you got this morning, my dear, was it not from Lady Mason?” “It was from Lady Mason, father; they go on Thursday.” “On Thursday; so soon as that.” And then Sir Peregrine, who had asked th...

We must now go back to Noningsby for one concluding chapter, and then our work will be completed. “You are not to go away from Noningsby when the trial is over, you know. Mamma said that I had better ...