Those that hold that all things are governed by Fortune had not erred, had they not persisted there. Sir Thomas Browne...

To Sir Hugh Clifford, K.C.M.G. whose steadfast friendship is responsible for the existence of these pages...

Chance is one of my novels that shortly after having been begun were laid aside for a few months. Starting impetuously like a sanguine oarsman setting forth in the early morning I came very soon to a ...

I believe he had seen us out of the window coming off to dine in the dinghy of a fourteen-ton yawl belonging to Marlow my host and skipper. We helped the boy we had with us to haul the boat up on the ...

I believe he had seen us out of the window coming off to dine in the dinghy of a fourteen-ton yawl belonging to Marlow my host and skipper. We helped the boy we had with us to haul the boat up on the ...

We were on our feet in the room by then, and Marlow, brown and deliberate, approached the window where Mr. Powell and I had retired. “What was the name of your chance again?” he asked. Mr. Powell star...

“But there was nothing improper in my observing to Fyne that, last night, Mrs. Fyne seemed to have some idea where that enterprising young lady had gone to. Fyne shook his head. No; his wife had been ...

“And the best of it was that the danger was all over already. There was no danger any more. The supposed nephew’s appearance had a purpose. He had come, full, full to trembling⁠—with the bigness of hi...

“ ‘Amiable personality,’ I observed seeing Fyne on the point of falling into a brown study. But I could not help adding with meaning: ‘He hadn’t the gift of prophecy though.’ “Fyne got up suddenly wit...

“ ‘A very singular prohibition,’ remarked Mrs. Fyne after a short silence. ‘He seemed to love the child.’ “She was puzzled. But I surmised that it might have been the sullenness of a man unconscious o...

“Fyne was not willing to talk; but as I had been already let into the secret, the fair-minded little man recognized that I had some right to information if I insisted on it. And I did insist, after th...

I have said that the story of Flora de Barral was imparted to me in stages. At this stage I did not see Marlow for some time. At last, one evening rather early, very soon after dinner, he turned up in...

I have said that the story of Flora de Barral was imparted to me in stages. At this stage I did not see Marlow for some time. At last, one evening rather early, very soon after dinner, he turned up in...

“You remember,” went on Marlow, “how I feared that Mr. Powell’s want of experience would stand in his way of appreciating the unusual. The unusual I had in my mind was something of a very subtle sort:...

“Young Powell thought to himself: ‘The men, too, are noticing it.’ Indeed, the captain’s behaviour to his wife and to his wife’s father was noticeable enough. It was as if they had been a pair of not ...

Marlow emerged out of the shadow of the bookcase to get himself a cigar from a box which stood on a little table by my side. In the full light of the room I saw in his eyes that slightly mocking expre...

“Renovated certainly the saloon of the Ferndale was to receive the ‘strange woman.’ The mellowness of its old-fashioned, tarnished decoration was gone. And Anthony looking round saw the glitter, the g...

“In the mess-room Powell found Mr. Franklin hacking at a piece of cold salt beef with a table knife. The mate, fiery in the face and rolling his eyes over that task, explained that the carver belongin...