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And it
was for this that he had madly thrown up his Colonial Office
appointment, for this that he had wasted Ethel's money, for this that he
had burdened his conscience with a world of lies; all to find in the end
that John Cann's secret was hidden under five fathoms of tropical
lagoon, among the scattered and waterlog... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
If you like to wait till some buckra
gentleman die--John Cann grabe among de white man side in de
grabeyard--I will dig grabe alongside ob John Cann one day, so let you
come yourself in de night and take what you like out ob him coffin. I
don't go meddle with coffin myself, to make de John Cann duppy trouble
me, and ma... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
At twelve o'clock of a dark moonless night, Cecil Mitford, still weak
and ill, but trembling only from the remains of his fever, set out
stealthily from the dead man's low bungalow in the outskirts of Spanish
Town, and walked on alone through the unlighted, unpaved streets of the
sleeping city to the Cathedral precinct... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
He had
eyed and measured the bearings so carefully already that he knew the
very spot to a nail's breadth where John Cann's treasure was actually
hidden. He set to work digging with a little pick as confidently as if
he had already seen the doubloons lying there in the strong box that he
knew enclosed them. Four feet d... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Cecil Mitford tore his hair as he counted it in impotent
self punishment; two hundred and twenty pounds, and he had expected at
least as many thousands! He saw it all in a moment. His wild fancy had
mistaken the poor outcast hunted-down pirate for a sort of ideal
criminal millionaire; he had erected the ignorant, perse... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
_His_ ideal had faded out
before the first touch of disillusioning fact; _hers_ persisted still,
in spite of all the rudest assaults that the plainest facts could make
upon it. Thank heaven for that wonderful idealising power of a good
woman, which enables her to walk unsullied through this sordid world,
unknowing and ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
The fact is, Isaline was a very pretty little girl, and
I had nothing else to do, and I might just as well make myself agreeable
to her as gain the reputation of being a bear of an Englishman. Besides,
if there was the safeguard of M. Claude, a real indigenous suitor, in
the background, there wasn't much danger of my p... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
To-day he is angry with me. He has no
right to be angry with me." "Mademoiselle," I said, "have you ever read our Shakespeare?" "Oh, yes, in English I have read him. I can read English well enough,
though I speak but a little." "And have you read the 'Tempest'?" "How? Ariel, Ferdinand, Miranda, Caliban? Oh, yes. It is ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
You don't know how dangerous
that little Aiguille really is." The sun was shining brightly on the snow; the view across the valley of
the Rhone towards the snowy Alps beyond was exquisite; and the giants of
the Bernese Oberland stood out in gloriously brilliant outline on the
other side against the clear blue summer sk... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
I have asked her, and she has
refused me. And she has been watching you up and down the Aiguille the
whole day with a telescope. When she saw you had fallen, she rushed out
like one distracted, and came to tell me at the school in the village. It is no use, you have beaten me." "M. Claude," I said, "I will plead for yo... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Monsieur replied with true Swiss caution that he would inquire into my
statements, and that if they proved to be as represented, and if I
obtained in turn my mother's consent, he would be happy to hand me over
Isaline. "Toutefois," he added quietly, "it will be perhaps better to
rescind your journey to Lausanne. The Gl... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
The rector of the parish was an Oxford
M.A., of the usual decorously stereotyped conventional pattern; but in
point even of earthly knowledge and earthly consideration, said the
congregation at Patmos Chapel, "he is not worthy to unloose the latchet
of our pastor's shoe." For Professor Milliter was universally allowed ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Miss Leaworthy, we none of
us love superstition: but perhaps after all it is something more than
that; there may be a Hand guiding us from above, even in these everyday
trifles! We must never forget, you know, that every hair of our heads is
numbered." Netta's heart fluttered still more violently within her as he looke... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
And, somehow, when once Cyril Milliter had said that in
his quiet natural way to anybody, however cynical, the somebody never
cared to talk any more gossip thenceforward for ever on the subject of
the professor's forthcoming marriage. Indeed, so fully did the young professor manage to carry public
sentiment with him in... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
But that was not what the
Truth told them. On the fourth day of creation, simultaneously with the
fish and every living creature that moveth in the ocean, the waters
brought forth "fowl that might fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven." Such on this subject was the plain and incontrovertible
statement of ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
To most scientific men it would
have been merely the discovery of an interesting intermediate
organism--something sure to make the reputation of a comparative
anatomist; to him, it was an awful and sudden blow dealt unexpectedly
from the most deadly quarter at all his deepest and most sacred
principles. Religion, honou... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
On the other hand, he couldn't bear, either, to display it openly, and
thereby become, as the matter envisaged itself to his mind, a direct
preacher of evolutionism--that is to say, of irreligion and immorality. With what face could he ever rise and exhibit at a scientific meeting
this evident proof that the whole univ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Had he wandered about alone, saying to himself that
he had thrown himself away, and sacrificed his future prospects for a
pure, romantic boyish fancy? Had he got tired of her little, simple,
homely ways? Had he come back to the house, heartsick and disappointed,
and gone by himself into the working laboratory on purpos... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
She took up a
scientific paper from the heap on the table, and pretended to begin
reading it. Cyril rose and tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away
with an impatient gesture. "Never," she said haughtily. "Never, Cyril,
until you choose to tell me your private secret." Cyril sank back gloomily into his chair, folded... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
he asked her simply, pointing to
the fossil; glad to have any companionship, even if so unsympathetic, in
his hitherto unspoken doubts and difficulties. "Do with it? Why, show it to the Geological Society, of course, Cyril. It's the Truth, you know, dearest, and why on earth should you wish to
conceal it? The Truth sha... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
_IN STRICT CONFIDENCE._
I.
Harry Pallant was never more desperately in love with his wife Louie
than on the night of that delightful dance at the Vernon Ogilvies'. She
wore her pale blue satin, with the low bodice, and her pretty necklet of
rough amber in natural lumps, which her husband had given her for a
birthday... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
I can hardly breathe, I
feel so stifled. Tight-lacing, I suppose poor dear Wetherby would say. I
declare, Louie isn't dancing any longer. How very odd! She's gone back
again now to sit by Hugh there. What on earth can be the reason, I
wonder!" "Captain Vandeleur's such an awfully bad waltzer, you know," Harry
answered ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
So great is the power of printer's ink, that
if you say a thing face to face, your own wife even will take no notice
of it; but if you set it up in type anonymously, she, and the world at
large to boot, will treat it like an inspired oracle in stone fallen
down direct from the seventh heaven. And yet somehow Harry Pall... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
I've telegraphed down to-night for rooms, and I dare say--I shall
get rid there of whatever's troubling me." The Red Lion at Bilborough was the hotel at which they had passed their
honeymoon, and where they had often gone at various times since for
their summer holiday. Louie was delighted at the proposed trip, and
smo... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
But she didn't yet perceive, obvious as
it seemed, that Harry thought she herself had written "Egeria's" letter
in her own person. She thought still he was in love with Dora, and had
drowned himself because he couldn't tear himself away from her for ever. V.
They brought Harry Pallant ashore, cold and lifeless, and ca... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
I see it all
now. You can never forgive me. It is I who have brought all this
misery upon you. I am a wretched woman. Do not reproach me--I
reproach myself more bitterly than anything you could say would
ever reproach me. But don't forgive me and pity me either. If you
forgive me I shall have t... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Handsome as he was, with his black moustache and
big dark eyes rolling restlessly, I took an instantaneous dislike to his
cruel thin lip and cold proud mouth the moment I looked upon him. If I
had been wise, I would have drawn back from the expedition at once. It
is a foolish thing to bind one's self down to a voyage o... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
"Why," I said, looking at him, with my disgust speaking in my face
(Heaven forgive me! ), "I call it nothing less than murder." Lemarchant laughed, and lit his cigar; but after that, somehow, the
other men didn't much care to talk to him in an ordinary way more than
was necessary for the carrying out of the ship's busi... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Yes; his little girl, that he spoke of so carelessly, that he lied to so
easily, that he meant to marry so cruelly, was my Dora. I had pitied the woman who was to be Harry Lemarchant's wife even when I
didn't know who she was in any way; I pitied her terribly, with all my
heart, when I knew that she was Dora--my own Do... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
True, I was wild with fever and delirium; I was maddened with
the thought that this wretched man would marry Dora; I was horrified at
the idea of sleeping in the same room with him any longer. But still, I
acknowledge it now, face to face with a lonely death upon this frozen
island, it was murder--wilful murder. I mean... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Heaven knows what effect it may have upon
all of you, who read it quietly at home in your own easy-chairs in
England; but we of the search party, who took those almost illegible
sheets of shaky writing from the cold fingers of the one solitary corpse
within the frozen cabin on the Liakov Islands--we read them through w... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Began with that;
then abolition of purchase; then local centres; then that abominable
strap with the slip buckle--there, there, Harry, upon my soul, my boy, I
can't bear to think of it. But a man may be opposed, as I said, to the
whole present system of competitive examination, and yet, while that
system still unfortun... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Then he crept back, still noiselessly,
feeling more like a convicted thief himself than a Knight Commander of
the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, and wondering when the deuce this
pilfering lock-breaker was going to begin his nightly depredations. Not
till after Harry came back most likely. The thief, whoever he or ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
Harry held the lid of the devonport open for a moment with one
hand, and looked at the rows of counted gold within. The fingers of the
other hand rose slowly and remorsefully up to the edge of the desk, and
there hovered in an undecided fashion. Sir Thomas watched still, with
his heart breaking. Then for a second Harry... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
These black devils have broken loose at last, and they're going to fire
the officers' quarters.' "Well, Harry, my boy, I needn't tell you all about it at full length
to-day; but in the end, as you know, we fought the men for our own
lives, and held our ground until the detachment came from Etawah to
relieve us. However... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
If you break parole I shall
think very badly, very badly indeed, of you." But as the old man turned back sadly into his lonely library, he thought
to himself, "I wonder whether I oughtn't to have dealt more harshly with
him! I wonder whether I was right in letting him off so easily for two
such extremely--such extremel... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
I've been qualified now for
nine months, and got a post as house-surgeon at our hospital; but I've
waited to come and tell you till I'd saved up that money, you know, out
of my salary, and now I'm coming back to settle down in practice here,
uncle." Sir Thomas said nothing, but he rose from his chair and took both
Harr... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
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(1688 to 1847). Edited by HENRY SANSON. =Summer Cruising In the South Seas.= By C. WARREN STODDARD. Illustrated by WALLIS MACKAY. * ... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
_BY JAMES DE MILLE._
A Castle In Spain. _BY J. LEITH DERWENT._
Our Lady of Tears. Circe's Lovers. _BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS._
Felicia. Kitty. _BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES._
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Queen Cophetua. One by One. A Real Queen. _Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE._
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What will the World Say? In Honour Bound. In Love and War. For the King. In Pastures Green. Queen of the Meadow. The Flower of the Forest. A Heart's Problem. The Braes of Yarrow. The Golden Shaft. Of High Degree. Fancy Free. By Mead and Stream. _BY WILLIAM GILBERT._
Dr. Austin's Guests. The Wizard of the Mountain. J... | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
=The Silverado Squatters.= By R. LOUIS STEVENSON. * * * * * | Allen, Grant - The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories |
THE NIGHT WIRE
By H. F. Arnold
“New York, September 30 CP FLASH
“Ambassador Holliwell died here today. The end came suddenly as the
ambassador was alone in his study....”
There’s something ungodly about these night wire jobs. You sit up here
on the top floor of a skyscraper and listen in to the whispers of a
civi... | Arnold, H. F. (Henry Ferris) - The night wire |
“New Lead Xebico Fog CP
“The rescue party which went out at 11 p. m. to investigate a
weird story of the origin of a fog which, since late yesterday,
has shrouded the city in darkness, has failed to return. Another
and larger party has been dispatched. “Meanwhile the fog has, if possible, grown heavier... | Arnold, H. F. (Henry Ferris) - The night wire |
I shall never know, for I shall never again handle the night shift. Search in a world atlas discloses no town of Xebico. Whatever it was
that killed John Morgan will forever remain a mystery. [Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the September 1926 issue | Arnold, H. F. (Henry Ferris) - The night wire |
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Amazing Stories March 1954. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
p... | Arthur, Robert - Ring Once for Death |
"As soon as young Sam Kee told us
about his father's separating the clapper and the bell, I remembered
the central crystal pendant on my necklace. It _is_ shaped like a bell
clapper--we mentioned it once. "I guessed right away we had the missing clapper. But I didn't say so. I wanted to score on you, Mark--" she smiled... | Arthur, Robert - Ring Once for Death |
The
other man plunged forward to the ground and lay where he had fallen
without quivering. * * * * *
The clock in the hall struck two with muted strokes. Cautiously Edith
Williams rose on her elbow and looked down at her husband's face. His
eyes opened and looked back at her. "You're awake," sh... | Arthur, Robert - Ring Once for Death |
I
realized they must have made a mistake, and you'd come here, and I
called for a taxi and came out here. My taxi let me off at the
entrance around the block, and I've been looking for you down
there.... Poor Pete!" "Pete?" she asked. "Pete Friedburg. He was driving the old car. I lent him the keys and
my driver's lice... | Arthur, Robert - Ring Once for Death |
Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen
(1803)
Contents
ADVERTISEMENT BY THE AUTHORESS, TO NORTHANGER ABBEY
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
From Pope, she learnt to censure those who
“bear about the mockery of woe.”
From Gray, that
“Many a flower is born to blush unseen,
“And waste its fragrance on the desert air.”
From Thomson, that—
“It is a delightful task
“To teach the young idea how to shoot.”
And from Shakespeare she gained a great store of ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
The air of a gentlewoman, a
great deal of quiet, inactive good temper, and a trifling turn of mind
were all that could account for her being the choice of a sensible,
intelligent man like Mr. Allen. In one respect she was admirably fitted
to introduce a young lady into public, being as fond of going
everywhere and seei... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Every five
minutes, by removing some of the crowd, gave greater openings for her
charms. She was now seen by many young men who had not been near her
before. Not one, however, started with rapturous wonder on beholding
her, no whisper of eager inquiry ran round the room, nor was she once
called a divinity by anybody. Y... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
I bought one for her the other day, and it was pronounced to be
a prodigious bargain by every lady who saw it. I gave but five
shillings a yard for it, and a true Indian muslin.”
Mrs. Allen was quite struck by his genius. “Men commonly take so little
notice of those things,” said she; “I can never get Mr. Allen to kno... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
The others are very much admired too, but I believe
Isabella is the handsomest.”
The Miss Thorpes were introduced; and Miss Morland, who had been for a
short time forgotten, was introduced likewise. The name seemed to
strike them all; and, after speaking to her with great civility, the
eldest young lady observed aloud... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Perhaps Catherine was wrong in not demanding the cause of
that gentle emotion—but she was not experienced enough in the finesse
of love, or the duties of friendship, to know when delicate raillery
was properly called for, or when a confidence should be forced. Mrs. Allen was now quite happy—quite satisfied with Bath. S... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the
Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.”
“Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all
horrid?”
“Yes, quite sure; for a particular friend of mine, a Miss Andrew... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Everybody
acquainted with Bath may remember the difficulties of crossing Cheap
Street at this point; it is indeed a street of so impertinent a nature,
so unfortunately connected with the great London and Oxford roads, and
the principal inn of the city, that a day never passes in which parties
of ladies, however importa... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Are you
fond of an open carriage, Miss Morland?”
“Yes, very; I have hardly ever an opportunity of being in one; but I am
particularly fond of it.”
“I am glad of it; I will drive you out in mine every day.”
“Thank you,” said Catherine, in some distress, from a doubt of the
propriety of accepting such an offer. “I wil... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
I need not ask you whether you are happy here,
my dear Catherine; with such a companion and friend as Isabella Thorpe,
it would be impossible for you to be otherwise; and the Allens, I am
sure, are very kind to you?”
“Yes, very kind; I never was so happy before; and now you are come it
will be more delightful than eve... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
A neighbour of ours, Dr.
Skinner, was here for his health last winter, and came away quite
stout.”
“That circumstance must give great encouragement.”
“Yes, sir—and Dr. Skinner and his family were here three months; so I
tell Mr. Allen he must not be in a hurry to get away.”
Here they were interrupted by a request fr... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Well, remember that it is not my fault, if we set
all the old ladies in Bath in a bustle. Come along, my dearest
Catherine, for heaven’s sake, and stand by me.” And off they went, to
regain their former place. John Thorpe, in the meanwhile, had walked
away; and Catherine, ever willing to give Mr. Tilney an opportunity ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
“My dearest creature,” cried Isabella, to whom the duty of
friendship immediately called her before she could get into the
carriage, “you have been at least three hours getting ready. I was
afraid you were ill. What a delightful ball we had last night. I have a
thousand things to say to you; but make haste and get in, ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
i would undertake
for five pounds to drive it to York and back again, without losing a
nail.”
Catherine listened with astonishment; she knew not how to reconcile two
such very different accounts of the same thing; for she had not been
brought up to understand the propensities of a rattle, nor to know to
how many idle ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Could she have foreseen such a circumstance,
nothing should have persuaded her to go out with the others; and, as it
was, she could only lament her ill luck, and think over what she had
lost, till it was clear to her that the drive had by no means been very
pleasant and that John Thorpe himself was quite disagreeable. ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
“Shall you be at the cotillion ball to-morrow?”
“Perhaps we—Yes, I think we certainly shall.”
“I am glad of it, for we shall all be there.” This civility was duly
returned; and they parted—on Miss Tilney’s side with some knowledge of
her new acquaintance’s feelings, and on Catherine’s, without the
smallest consciousn... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Fidelity
and complaisance are the principal duties of both; and those men who do
not choose to dance or marry themselves, have no business with the
partners or wives of their neighbours.”
“But they are such very different things!”
“—That you think they cannot be compared together.”
“To be sure not. People that marry... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
In chatting with Miss Tilney before the evening concluded, a new source
of felicity arose to her. She had never taken a country walk since her
arrival in Bath. Miss Tilney, to whom all the commonly frequented
environs were familiar, spoke of them in terms which made her all
eagerness to know them too; and on her openly... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
“What is that?”
“The finest place in England—worth going fifty miles at any time to
see.”
“What, is it really a castle, an old castle?”
“The oldest in the kingdom.”
“But is it like what one reads of?”
“Exactly—the very same.”
“But now really—are there towers and long galleries?”
“By dozens.”
“Then I should like... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
“If your brother had not got such a d—— beast to drive,” said he soon
afterwards, “we might have done it very well. My horse would have
trotted to Clifton within the hour, if left to himself, and I have
almost broke my arm with pulling him in to that cursed broken-winded
jade’s pace. Morland is a fool for not keeping a... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
To the theatre
accordingly they all went; no Tilneys appeared to plague or please her;
she feared that, amongst the many perfections of the family, a fondness
for plays was not to be ranked; but perhaps it was because they were
habituated to the finer performances of the London stage, which she
knew, on Isabella’s auth... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
I
have met him forever at the Bedford; and I knew his face again to-day
the moment he came into the billiard-room. One of the best players we
have, by the by; and we had a little touch together, though I was
almost afraid of him at first: the odds were five to four against me;
and, if I had not made one of the cleanest... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
At one moment she was softened, at another irritated; always
distressed, but always steady. “I did not think you had been so obstinate, Catherine,” said James;
“you were not used to be so hard to persuade; you once were the
kindest, best-tempered of my sisters.”
“I hope I am not less so now,” she replied, very feeling... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
“Oh, no; Catherine
was sure they would not have the least objection, and she should have
great pleasure in coming.” The General attended her himself to the
street-door, saying everything gallant as they went downstairs,
admiring the elasticity of her walk, which corresponded exactly with
the spirit of her dancing, and ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Here was I, in my eagerness to get
on, refusing to wait only five minutes for my sister, breaking the
promise I had made of reading it aloud, and keeping her in suspense at
a most interesting part, by running away with the volume, which, you
are to observe, was her own, particularly her own. I am proud when I
reflect o... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
She knew nothing of drawing—nothing of taste:
and she listened to them with an attention which brought her little
profit, for they talked in phrases which conveyed scarcely any idea to
her. The little which she could understand, however, appeared to
contradict the very few notions she had entertained on the matter
befo... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
But I do assure you that he must be entirely
misunderstood, if he can ever appear to say an unjust thing of any
woman at all, or an unkind one of me.”
It was no effort to Catherine to believe that Henry Tilney could never
be wrong. His manner might sometimes surprise, but his meaning must
always be just: and what she ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
The
happiness of having such a sister was their first effusion, and the
fair ladies mingled in embraces and tears of joy. Delighting, however, as Catherine sincerely did, in the prospect of the
connection, it must be acknowledged that Isabella far surpassed her in
tender anticipations. “You will be so infinitely dearer... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
“I have had no difficulty in gaining the consent of my kind
parents, and am promised that everything in their power shall be done
to forward my happiness,” were the first three lines, and in one moment
all was joyful security. The brightest glow was instantly spread over
Isabella’s features, all care and anxiety seemed... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
She could not listen to that with perfect calmness, but
repeatedly regretted the necessity of its concealment, wished she could
have known his intention, wished she could have seen him before he
went, as she should certainly have troubled him with her best regards
to his father and mother, and her kind compliments to a... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
I suppose he saw Isabella sitting down, and fancied she
might wish for a partner; but he is quite mistaken, for she would not
dance upon any account in the world.”
Henry smiled, and said, “How very little trouble it can give you to
understand the motive of other people’s actions.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“With you,... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
I always heard he was a most excellent man;
and you know, my dear, we are not to suppose but what, if you had had a
suitable fortune, he would have come down with something more, for I am
sure he must be a most liberal-minded man.”
“Nobody can think better of Mr. Morland than I do, I am sure. But
everybody has their f... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Mr. and Mrs. Morland, relying on the
discretion of the friends to whom they had already entrusted their
daughter, felt no doubt of the propriety of an acquaintance which had
been formed under their eye, and sent therefore by return of post their
ready consent to her visit in Gloucestershire. This indulgence, though
not... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Well, if you say it, it was so, I dare say—but for the life
of me, I cannot recollect it. I _do_ remember now being with you, and
seeing him as well as the rest—but that we were ever alone for five
minutes— However, it is not worth arguing about, for whatever might pass
on his side, you must be convinced, by my having ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
Isabella talked of
his attentions; _she_ had never been sensible of any; but Isabella had
said many things which she hoped had been spoken in haste, and would
never be said again; and upon this she was glad to rest altogether for
present ease and comfort. CHAPTER 19
A few days passed away, and Catherine, though not a... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
You have no doubt of the mutual attachment of
your brother and your friend; depend upon it, therefore, that real
jealousy never can exist between them; depend upon it that no
disagreement between them can be of any duration. Their hearts are open
to each other, as neither heart can be to you; they know exactly what
is ... | Austen, Jane - Northanger Abbey |
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