Miss Phoebe Tozer, the only daughter of the chief deacon and leading member of the Dissenting connection in Carlingford, married, shortly after his appointment to the charge of Salem Chapel, in that t...

Mr. Copperhead, to whom so much allusion has been made, was a well-known man in other regions besides that of the Crescent Chapel. His name, indeed, may be said to have gone to the ends of the earth, ...

This ball was an event, not only in Mr. Copperhead’s household, but even in the connection itself, to which the idea of balls, as given by leading members of the flock, was somewhat novel. Not that th...

“Very funny, now,” said Sir Robert. “I don’t know that such a thing ever happened to me before. Give you my word for it, I didn’t know a single soul, not one; and there must have been a couple of hund...

“Mr. Copperhead’s manner is not pleasant sometimes, that is quite true. We must make allowances, my dear. Great wealth, you know, has its temptations. You can’t expect a man with so much money and so ...

Sir Robert Dorset and his daughter called, as in duty bound, upon their relation two days after her ball. “You had better come with us, Ursula,” said Miss Dorset. “Sophy does not care about visits, an...

Next day a telegram came from Southampton, announcing the arrival of the little Dorsets, which Ursula rejoiced over with the rest, yet was dreadfully sorry for in her heart. “Now we shall be able to g...

Next day the little Dorsets came, an odd little pair of shivering babies, with a still more shivering Ayah. It was the failing health of the little exotic creatures, endangered by their English blood,...

The party which set out from Suffolk Street next morning was a mighty one; there were the children, the ayah, the new nurse whom Anne had engaged in town, to take charge of her little nephews as soon ...

“Ursula has come back!” cried the little ones, who had returned from their tea-party, running to meet their father at the door. Mr. May was very good, except by moments, to his younger children. He wa...

A few days after Ursula’s return home, another arrival took place in Carlingford. Phoebe Beecham, after considering the case fully, and listening with keen interest to all the indications she could pi...

Mr. and Mrs. Tozer had retired from business several years before. They had given up the shop with its long established connection, and all its advantages, to Tom, their son, finding themselves to hav...

When Phoebe woke next morning, under the huge flowers of the old fashioned cotton drapery of her “tent” bed, to see the faint daylight struggling in through the heavy curtains which would not draw bac...

“Well, Ursula, how do you do?” said Mrs. Sam Hurst, meeting her young neighbour with outstretched hands. She was a portly good-looking woman with an active mind, and nothing, or next to nothing to do,...

The interest shown by the two girls in the stranger whom they had noted with so much attention was not destined to meet with any immediate reward. Neither he, nor “the young lady in black,” whom he hu...

It seems difficult to imagine what connection there could be between Phoebe Beecham’s appearance in Grange Lane and the interview which took place there between her and the “new gentleman,” and Mr. Ma...

Phoebe’s philosophy, however, was put to the test when, after the young pastor had taken tea and got himself away from the pressing hospitalities of the Tozers, her grandfather also disappeared to put...

Mr. May went into his study and closed the door. He poked the fire⁠—he put himself into his easy-chair⁠—he drew his writing-book towards him, and opened it at where a half-written sheet lay waiting. A...

It cannot be denied that, reluctant as Reginald May had been to accept the chaplaincy of which so much had been said, he had no sooner fairly done so, and committed himself beyond remedy, than a certa...

“Well, who is she?” cried Mrs. Sam Hurst, too curious to think of the ordinary decorums. She had no bonnet on, but a light “cloud” of white wool over her cap, and her whole aspect was full of eagernes...

After this there followed an exciting interval for the family at the Parsonage. Reginald, with the impatience of anger, insisted upon transporting himself to the College at once, and entering upon “hi...

It was something of a comfort to Phoebe to find that the “tea” to which Ursula asked her was a family meal, such as Mr. and Mrs. Tozer indulged in, in Grange Lane, with no idea of dinner to follow, as...

Next morning, Cotsdean was mournfully turning over his ledger in the High Street, wondering whether he should go back to Mr. May on another forlorn expedition, or whether he should betray his overwhel...

Dear May, Young Copperhead, the young fellow whom you have undertaken to coach, is coming to the Hall for a few days before he enters upon his studies, and Anne wishes me to ask you to come over on Tu...

Now here was a business! The typical Anglican and the typical Dissenter, as Phoebe said, with only that clever young woman to keep them from flying at each other’s throats; the one obstinately holding...

It is unnecessary to say that the dinner party in the Hall bore very little resemblance to those simple amusements in No. 6, Grange Lane. There were three or four people to meet Mr. May, who, as an or...

After the evening at Grange Lane which has been described, Reginald May met Northcote in the street several times, as was unavoidable, considering the size of the place, and the concentration of all b...

Mr. May, since the bargain was fairly concluded with the Copperheads, had thought a great deal about the three hundred a-year he was to get for his pupil. It almost doubled his income in a moment, and...

It would be difficult to describe the anxiety with which that first “late dinner” was regarded by Ursula. Janey, too, had thrown herself into it heart and soul, until she received the crushing intimat...

After this dinner-party, such as it was, the Parsonage became gradually the centre of a little society, such as sometimes forms in the most accidental way in a house where there are young men and youn...

Notwithstanding such little social crosses, however, the society at the Parsonage, as thus constituted, was very agreeable. Mr. May, though he had his faults, was careful of his daughter. He sat in th...

Mrs. Sam Hurst had been a long time out of Carlingford; she had been paying visits among her friends, with whom, though the young Mays would never believe it, she was very popular, for she was not ill...

“Well, young ladies!” said Mrs. Sam Hurst, “I left you very quiet, but there seems to be plenty going on nowadays. What a beautiful moon there was last night! I put up my window to look at it, and all...

Mr. May did not take any particular notice of what was going on around him among the young people. Nobody could have been more startled than he, had he been told of the purpose with which Horace North...

When Mr. May woke next morning, it was not the bookcase he thought of, but that date which had been the last thing in his mind on the previous night. Not the 15th⁠—the 18th. Certainly he was right, an...

Ursula had prepared a very careful luncheon for the stranger. She thought him disagreeable, but she had not looked at him much, for, indeed, Ursula’s mind was much unsettled. Horace Northcote had spok...

The result, however, was a compromise. Clarence Copperhead went off with his father and Sir Robert to the Hall for the night, but was to return next day, and Phoebe was left in a condition of some exc...

Mr. May did not come upstairs that evening. It was not that he was paralysed as he had been on the previous occasion, when he sat as now and heard Phoebe go away after her first visit, and when the wi...

Mr. May left the Hall before dinner, notwithstanding the warm invitation which was given to him to stay. He was rather restless, and though it was hard to go out into the dark just as grateful odours ...

Phoebe’s mind was full of many and somewhat agitating thoughts. She went upstairs with a restless haste, which she would have been the first to condemn, to the room where the others were congregated, ...

“Go and lie down for an hour,” whispered Phoebe. “I am not sleepy at all. I have sat up before, and never felt it, you never did, I can see it in your poor little white face; and besides, I am steadie...

“Have you any notion what was the cause?” “None,” said Reginald. “Oh, no, none at all,” said Ursula. They were all three standing at the door of the sickroom, in which already a great transformation h...

The day which had intervened between Phoebe’s morning walk, and this darkling flight along the same road, had been full of agitation at the house of the Tozers. Phoebe, who would willingly have spared...

“Now if you please,” said Mr. Copperhead. “I think it’s my turn. I wanted May to hear what I had got to say, but as he’s ill or mad, or something, it is not much good. I can’t imagine what all these i...

This is how Phoebe’s difficulties ended. Contrary to her every expectation, Mr. Copperhead made a great brag of her powers wherever he went. “Money is money,” he said, “but brains is brains, all the s...