Clad in his customary black and silver, with raven hair unpowdered and elaborately dressed, diamonds on his fingers and in his cravat, Hugh Tracy Clare Belmanoir, Duke of Andover, sat at the escritoir...

Chadber was the name of the host, florid of countenance, portly of person, and of manner pompous and urbane. Solely within the walls of the Chequers lay his world, that inn having been acquired by his...

“Sir Anthony Ferndale” sat before the dressing-table in his room at the White Hart, idly polishing his nails. A gorgeous silk dressing gown lay over the back of his chair, and, behind him, Jim was att...

Wyncham! A stately old house with mullioned windows, standing high on its stone terraces, half-covered by creepers; a house surrounded by lawns, rolling down on the one side to a river that rippled an...

Richard went slowly back to his chair. After a moment he sat down, staring blankly out of the window, his hands loosely clasped on the desk before him. So he remained for a long while, immobile. At la...

Lady Lavinia dressed herself with even more than her usual care next afternoon, and well-nigh drove her maid distracted by her flashes of temper and impatient, contradictory orders. So lengthy was the...

The autumn and the winter passed smoothly, and April found the Carstares installed at Bath, whither Lady Lavinia had teased her husband into going, despite his desire to return to Wyncham and John. Sh...

Not twenty minutes’ walk from Lady Lavinia’s house in Queen Square resided a certain Madam Thompson⁠—a widow⁠—who had lived in Bath for nearly fifteen years. With her was staying Miss Elizabeth Beaule...

With John Carstares the winter had passed quite uneventfully. He continued his highway robbery, but he made two bad blunders⁠—not from the point of view of a thief, but from that of the gentleman in h...

Lady O’Hara found that her big, indolent husband was unusually silent next morning at breakfast. She had not been married long enough to consent to being practically ignored, no matter what the time o...

For a long minute silence reigned, all three actors in the little comedy listening to the heavy footsteps retreating down the passage, Carstares with one arm still around my lady’s waist and a rather ...

Late that afternoon Carstares left Thurze House on one of his friend’s horses. He waved a very regretful farewell to O’Hara and his lady, promising to let them know his whereabouts and to visit them a...

My lord came sighing back to life. He opened his eyes wearily, and turned his head. A faint feeling of surprise stole over him. He was in a room he had never been in before, and by the window, busy wi...

After Jim’s arrival my lord recovered quickly, each day making great progress, much to the doctor’s satisfaction, who never tired of telling Mr. Beauleigh and Miss Betty that it was entirely owing to ...

The idyllic summer days passed quickly by, and every time that my lord spoke of leaving, the outcry was so indignant and so firm that he hastily subsided and told himself he would stay just another fe...

Jim Salter folded one of my lord’s waistcoats, and placed it carefully in an open valise; then he picked up a coat, and spread it on the bed preparatory to folding it in such wise that no crease shoul...

Mr. Bettison could make nothing of Diana of late. Her demeanour, at first so charming and so cheerful, had become listless, and even chilling. She seemed hardly to listen to some of his best tales, an...

Lady O’Hara looked across at her sleeping husband with no little severity in her glance. He was stretched in a chair beneath a giant oak, and she was busied with some needlework a few paces from him. ...

At the end of August, after having spent a moderately quiet summer in the country, Lady Lavinia was again seized with a longing for town and its attractions. She would not listen to Richard’s warnings...

It seemed to Richard in the days that followed, that Captain Lovelace was never out of his house. If he went to his wife’s boudoir, there was Lovelace, hanging over her while she played upon the spine...

When the Duke of Andover dined next day at Grosvenor Square, he contrived, by subtle means, to make his sister feel inexplicably ill at ease. He let fall pleasant little remarks concerning her friends...

Richard Carstares very soon availed himself of Mrs. Fanshawe’s permission to call upon her, and duly put in an appearance at No. 16, Mount Street. He found the house very tastefully appointed, the sis...

After the encounter with O’Hara, whatever peace of mind Richard had had, left him. He knew not a moment’s quiet; all day, and sometimes all night, his brain worried round and round the everlasting que...

Richard was away from home all next day, and his wife had plenty of time in which to meditate upon her situation. She had quite come to the conclusion that she must elope with Lovelace, and was only w...

Lady Lavinia’s frame of mind when she awoke next morning was hardly befitting one who contemplated an elopement. A weight seemed to rest on her chest, hopeless misery was gathered about her head. She ...

Diana stood in the old oak porch, riding-whip in hand, and the folds of her voluminous gown over her arm. Miss Betty stood beside her, surveying her with secret pride. Diana’s eyes seemed darker than ...

My lord yawned most prodigiously and let fall the Spectator. His eyes roved towards the clock, and noted with disgust that the hands pointed to half after five. He sighed and picked up the Rambler. Hi...

His Grace of Andover made a sign to the footmen, and with a sinking heart Diana watched them leave the room, discreetly closing the door behind them. She affected to eat a peach, skinning it with fing...

With a smothered cry Diana flew across the room to where my lord lay in a pitiful little heap, but before her was Richard. He fell on his knees beside the still figure, feeling for the wound. Diana, o...

After spending a restless night, starting at every sound, and hearing the hours strike slowly away, Lady O’Hara arose not a whit refreshed and considerably more ill at ease than she had been before. D...

His Grace of Andover sat at the window of his lodgings at Venice, looking down at a letter in his hand. The writing was his sister’s. After a moment he drew a deep breath and broke the seal, spreading...