The Black Robeby Wilkie CollinsBEFORE THE STORY.FIRST SCENE.BOULOGNE-SUR-MER.THE DUEL.I.THE doctors could do no more for the Dowager Lady Berrick.When the medical advisers of a lady who has reached seventy yearsof age recommend the mild climate of the South of France, theymean in plain language that they have arrived at the end of theirresources. Her ladyship gave the mild climate a fair trial, andthen decided (as she herself expressed it) to "die at home."Traveling slowly, she had reached Paris at the date when I last...　

A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soulby George MacDonaldDEDICATIONSweet friends, receive my offering. You will findAgainst each worded page a white page set:This is the mirror of each friendly mindReflecting that. In this book we are met.Make it, dear hearts, of worth to you indeed:Let your white page be ground, my print be seed,Growing to golden ears, that faith and hope shall feed.YOUR OLD SOULThe Diary of an Old Soul.JANUARY.1.LORD, what I once had done with youthful might,Had I been from the first true to the truth,Grant me, now old, to dowith better sight,And humbler heart, if not the brain of youth;...　

Alfred Tennysonby Andrew LangINTRODUCTIONIn writing this brief sketch of the Life of Tennyson, and thisattempt to appreciate his work, I have rested almost entirely on theBiography by Lord Tennyson (with his kind permission) and on the textof the Poems. As to the Life, doubtless current anecdotes, not givenin the Biography, are known to me, and to most people. But as theymust also be familiar to the author of the Biography, I have notthought it desirable to include what he rejected. The works of the"localisers" I have not read: Tennyson disliked these researches, asa rule, and they appear to be unessential, and often hazardous. Theprofessed commentators I have not consulted. It appear　

Cousin Bettyby Honore de BalzacTranslated by James WaringDEDICATIONTo Don Michele Angelo Cajetani, Prince of Teano.It is neither to the Roman Prince, nor to the representative ofthe illustrious house of Cajetani, which has given more than onePope to the Christian Church, that I dedicate this short portionof a long history; it is to the learned commentator of Dante.It was you who led me to understand the marvelous framework ofideas on which the great Italian poet built his poem, the onlywork which the moderns can place by that of Homer. Till I heardyou, the Divine Comedy was to me a vast enigma to which none hadfound the cluethe commentators least of all. Thus, to understand...　

CHARLOTTE TEMPLECHARLOTTE TEMPLEBY SUSANNA HASWELL ROWSON1- Page 2-CHARLOTTE TEMPLEPREFACE.FOR the perusal of the young and thoughtless of the fair sex, this Taleof Truth is designed; and I could wish my fair readers to consider it as notmerely the effusion of Fancy, but as a reality. The circumstances on whichI have founded this novel were related to me some little time since by anold lady who had personally known Charlotte, though she concealed thereal names of the characters, and likewise the place where the unfortunate...　

An Old Town By The Seaby Thomas Bailey AldrichPISCATAQUA RIVERThou singest by the gleaming isles,By woods, and fields of corn,Thou singest, and the sunlight smilesUpon my birthday morn.But I within a city, I,So full of vague unrest,Would almost give my life to lieAn hour upon upon thy breast.To let the wherry listless go,And, wrapt in dreamy joy,Dip, and surge idly to and fro,Like the red harbor-buoy;To sit in happy indolence,To rest upon the oars,And catch the heavy earthy scentsThat blow from summer shores;To see the rounded sun go down,And with its parting firesLight up the windows of the townAnd burn the tapering spires;...　

THE WITCH AND HER SERVANTS[22][22] From the Russian. Kletke.Long time ago there lived a King who had three sons; the eldestwas called Szabo, the second Warza, and the youngest Iwanich.One beautiful spring morning the King was walking through hisgardens with these three sons, gazing with admiration at thevarious fruit-trees, some of which were a mass of blossom, whilstothers were bowed to the ground laden with rich fruit. Duringtheir wanderings they came unperceived on a piece of waste landwhere three splendid trees grew. The King looked on them for amoment, and then, shaking his head sadly, he passed on insilence.The sons, who could not understand why he did this, asked him the...　

THE SLEEPING-CARTHE SLEEPING-CAR1- Page 2-THE SLEEPING-CARI.SCENE: One side of a sleeping-car on the Boston and Albany Road.The curtains are drawn before most of the berths; from the hooks and rodshang hats, bonnets, bags, bandboxes, umbrellas, and other travelling gear;on the floor are boots of both sexes, set out for THE PORTER to black.THE PORTER is making up the beds in the upper and lower berthsadjoining the seats on which a young mother, slender and pretty, with a...　

The Costby David Graham PhillipsCONTENTSCHAPTERI A FATHER INVITES DISASTERII OLIVIA TO THE RESCUEIII AND SCARBOROUGHIV A DUMONT TRIUMPHV FOUR FRIENDSVI "LIKE HIS FATHER"VII PAULINE AWAKENSVIII THE DECISIONIX A THOROUGHBRED RUNS AWAYX MRS. JOHN DUMONTXI YOUNG AMERICAXII AFTER EIGHT YEARSXIII "MY SISTER IN LAW, GLADYSXIV STRAINING AT THE ANCHORSXV GRADUATED PEARLSXVI CHOICE AMONG EVILS...　

THE LIFTED VEILTHE LIFTED VEILby George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans]1- Page 2-THE LIFTED VEILCHAPTER IThe time of my end approaches. I have lately been subject to attacksof angina pectoris; and in the ordinary course of things, my physician tellsme, I may fairly hope that my life will not be protracted many months.Unless, then, I am cursed with an exceptional physical constitution, as Iam cursed with an exceptional mental character, I shall not much longer...　

The Fathers of the ConstitutionA Chronicle of the Establishment of the UnionBy Max FarrandCONTENTSI. THE TREATY OF PEACEII. TRADE AND INDUSTRYIII. THE CONFEDERATIONIV. THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCEV. DARKNESS BEFORE DAWNVI. THE FEDERAL CONVENTIONVII. FINISHING THE WORKVIII. THE UNION ESTABLISHEDAPPENDIXBIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTENOTES ON THE PORTRAITS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FEDERAL CONVENTIONFATHERS OF THE CONSTITUTIONCHAPTER I. THE TREATY OF PEACE "The United States of America"! It was in the Declaration of Independence that this name was first and formally proclaimed to the world, and to maintain its verity the war of the Revolution was fought. Americans like to think that they were then assuming "amon　

The Little Dukeby Charlotte M. YongeCHAPTER IOn a bright autumn day, as long ago as the year 943, there was a great bustle in the Castle of Bayeux in Normandy.The hall was large and low, the roof arched, and supported on thick short columns, almost like the crypt of a Cathedral; the walls were thick, and the windows, which had no glass, were very small, set in such a depth of wall that there was a wide deep window seat, upon which the rain might beat, without reaching the interior of the room. And even if it had come in, there was nothing for it to hurt, for the walls were of rough stone, and the floor of tiles. There was a fire at each end of this great dark apartment, but there were no c