Crash went the bells from All Saints tower; “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,” jangled the bells of old Saint Clement’s in response; and then All Saints fired off its volley again. The ...

Five o’clock chimed from All Saints tower as Captain Culvers handed his bride from the carriage at the churchyard gates. It was now over three hours since the wedding had taken place, and the neighbou...

“Impossible!” cried Lord Culvers, rubbing his forehead as if to waken his brain to something it refused to take in. “Incredible!” echoed Lady Culvers, throwing up her hands, and standing in an attitud...

“It’s a puzzle, Clive, from first to last. I feel as if we were trying to reason the matter out from an insufficient statement of facts. Come, have you nothing more to tell me?” So spoke Joshua Redway...

Lord Culvers did not offer any opposition to Mr. Redway’s suggestion. Off and on the girls lost a good many articles of jewellery in the course of a year, and an advertisement more or less, for one of...

Clive obtained a reluctant permission from Lord Culvers, and set off for Florence, to interrogate, under a seal of secrecy, Madame Verdi as to her possible knowledge of Ida’s movements. It must be adm...

“O wild western light in a winter’s sky, I have watched your radiance flame and die,” read Arthur Glynde, in the impassioned tone which poets, as a rule, reserve for their own productions. Juliet held...

The “beginning of next week” saw Clive on his way back from Florence, and Lord Culvers and his family comfortably settled in their country house; but it brought never a word of tidings of or from the ...

Juliet went sauntering home under the shadow of the high hedgerows, pink now with trailing wild rose, and half-opened buds of honeysuckle. It was a delicious day, with sun enough to suggest the tropic...

The next day was to bring news of a startling kind to the Hall. Juliet was spending a lazy morning feeding the waterfowl on the lake, and making believe to read Red Cotton Nightcap Country, when a mes...

Clive did not need to wait for Juliet’s reply to his letter in order to obtain Captain Culvers’s address. On the day of his arrival in Paris there was delivered to him a letter from his father, which ...

In his softer mood the voices of common sense and reason made themselves heard once more, counselling a suspension of judgement as well as of action, until the morrow put him in possession of the news...

“Yes, yes, my boy, I’m quite well. Don’t trouble about me,” said Lord Culvers, as he shook hands with Clive. “I’m a trifle worried, that’s all, and a little tired. Juliet sent you to meet me! Ah! very...

Wearied and dispirited, Lord Culvers leaned his head upon his hand. “It’s altogether too much, Clive,” he said. “I’m not a young man. I feel all to pieces. Life is a little too hard for me just now.” ...

Clive stood staring blankly at the mysterious words. “A poor penitent!” “A story to tell!” What in Heaven’s name did it mean? Who could have entered the room while Lord Culvers slept, and have left a ...

So Marie Schira passed away with her story untold. The air struck chill to Clive as, weary and sad at heart, he made his way down the stairs and out into the silent streets in the grey of the early da...

When the English mail came in that day, it brought with it for Clive the letter over which Juliet had spent so many hours. He read it aloud to Lord Culvers from its first to its last word. It commence...

Sefton’s story, told in short, abrupt sentences, and with as little detail as possible, was, after all, nothing more than the old one of plighted faith and broken troth, that the world has heard so of...

“Mother, it is done⁠—Juliet will be happy. Oh, that I could lie down to rest beside you now!” These were the words with which Ida laid her bridal flowers on her mother’s grave. Then bowing her head on...

Ida’s spirit and determination held out as far as to Naples. Then the fatigue and excitement of the journey began to tell upon her, her strength gave way, and she was confined to her bed for nearly a ...

To the last hour of his life Clive will never forget that swift yet tedious journey to the south undertaken under such strange conditions. Had anyone said to him only yesterday, “Out of the whole huma...

The news of Violante’s death met Clive and Sefton at Caréno, one of the nest of little villages they had to pass through on their way to the Sila Mountains. From Naples they had travelled to Buffalori...

The delay in procuring the mules retarded their journey by three or four hours, and in spite of their urgency, and the offer of double and treble pay alike to landlord and muleteers, Clive and Sefton ...

“Come into the garden, Ida, just for ten minutes, before it gets dark,” said Juliet, leading the way, as she spoke, through the open French window into the shadowy garden. “Oh, father and Peggy will e...