The Wooden Hand

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Hume Fergus. The Wooden Hand

CHAPTER I. MISERY CASTLE

CHAPTER II. LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM

CHAPTER III. THE NE'ER-DO-WEEL

CHAPTER IV. MYSTERY

CHAPTER V. A STRANGE LOSS

CHAPTER VI. THE WARNING

CHAPTER VII. THE INQUEST

CHAPTER VIII. A NEW LIFE

CHAPTER IX. THE MYSTERIOUS PARCEL

CHAPTER X. MRS. HILL EXPLAINS

CHAPTER XI. ALLEN AS A DETECTIVE

CHAPTER XII. LORD SALTARS

CHAPTER XIII. THE OTHER WOMAN

CHAPTER XIV. SIGNOR ANTONIO

CHAPTER XV. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

CHAPTER XVI. MR. HILL'S STORY

CHAPTER XVII. A FRIEND IN NEED

CHAPTER XVIII. THE FINDING OF BUTSEY

CHAPTER XIX. MRS. MERRY'S VISITORS

CHAPTER XX. AN AMAZING CONFESSION

CHAPTER XXI. THE DIAMONDS

CHAPTER XXII. BUTSEY'S STORY

CHAPTER XXIII. MISS LORRY'S LAST APPEARANCE

CHAPTER XXIV. THE WINDING OF THE SKEIN

Отрывок из книги

Eva Strode was an extremely pretty blonde. She had golden-brown hair which glistened in the sunshine, hazel eyes somewhat meditative in expression, and a complexion that Mrs. Merry, in her odd way, compared to mixed roses and milk. Her nose was delicate and straight, her mouth charming and sensitive, and if it drooped a trifle at the corners, she had good cause for so melancholy a twist. Her figure was so graceful that envious women, less favoured by Nature, suggested padding: but these same depreciators could say nothing against her hands and feet, which were exquisitely formed. Usually Eva, cunning enough to know that her beauty needed no adornment, dressed in the very plainest fashions. At the present moment she was arrayed in a pale blue dress of some coarse material, and wore a large straw hat swathed in azure tulle. An effective touch of more pronounced colour appeared in the knot of red ribbon at her throat and the bunch of crimson roses thrust into her waistband. She looked dainty, well-bred, charming, and even the malignant female eye would have found little to blame. But the female eye generally did find fault. Eva was much too pretty a girl to escape remark.

This vision of loveliness walked demurely down the garden path to gladden the eyes of a young man lingering at the gate. He, eagerly expecting the descent of Venus, quickly removed his Panama hat, and looked at the goddess with admiring eyes, eloquent of unspoken praise. Eva, feeling, rather than meeting, their fervid gaze, halted within the barrier and blushed as red as the roses in her belt. Then she ventured to look at her lover, and smiled a welcome.

.....

Eva released herself, rather offended. "I was thinking of my father, I admit," she said, "but I was not at all anxious. My father has been all over the world, and in wild parts, so he can look after himself very well. Besides, I never thought of the Red Deeps. And remember, Allen, I saw the right hand, gloved."

"That would seem to intimate that the dead man you saw in your dream was Mr. Strode," said Allen, kissing her; "but it's all nonsense, Eva."

.....