The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories

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Allen Grant. The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories

THE BECKONING HAND

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VII

VIII

IX

LUCRETIA

THE THIRD TIME

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VI

THE GOLD WULFRIC

PART I

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II

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IV

PART II

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VI

MY UNCLE'S WILL

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IV

THE TWO CARNEGIES

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VI

OLGA DAVIDOFF'S HUSBAND

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V

VI

JOHN CANN'S TREASURE

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VI

VII

VIII

ISALINE AND I

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III

PROFESSOR MILLITER'S DILEMMA

IN STRICT CONFIDENCE

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V

THE SEARCH PARTY'S FIND

HARRY'S INHERITANCE

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V

Отрывок из книги

I first met Césarine Vivian in the stalls at the Ambiguities Theatre.

I had promised to take Mrs. Latham and Irene to see the French plays which were then being acted by Marie Leroux's celebrated Palais Royal company. I wasn't at the time exactly engaged to poor Irene: it has always been a comfort to me that I wasn't engaged to her, though I knew Irene herself considered it practically equivalent to an understood engagement. We had known one another intimately from childhood upward, for the Lathams were a sort of second cousins of ours, three times removed: and we had always called one another by our Christian names, and been very fond of one another in a simple girlish and boyish fashion as long as we could either of us remember. Still, I maintain, there was no definite understanding between us; and if Mrs. Latham thought I had been paying Irene attentions, she must have known that a young man of two and twenty, with a decent fortune and a nice estate down in Devonshire, was likely to look about him for a while before he thought of settling down and marrying quietly.

.....

The next six weeks seem to me still like a vague dream: everything happened so hastily and strangely. I got a note next day from Irene. It was very short. "Dearest Harry, – Mamma and I think, under the circumstances, it would be best for us to leave London for a few weeks. I am not angry with you. With best love, ever yours affectionately, Irene."

I was wild when I received it. I couldn't bear to part so with Irene. I would find out where they were going and follow them immediately. I would write a note and break off my mad engagement with Césarine. I must have been drunk or insane when I made it. I couldn't imagine what I could have been doing.

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