Madame Midas
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Оглавление
Hume Fergus. Madame Midas
PROLOGUE – CAST UP BY THE SEA
PART I
CHAPTER I. – THE PACTOLUS CLAIM
CHAPTER II. – SLIVERS
CHAPTER III. – MADAME MIDAS AT HOME
CHAPTER IV. – THE GOOD SAMARITAN
CHAPTER V. – MAMMON’S TREASURE HOUSE
CHAPTER VI. – KITTY
CHAPTER VII. – MR VILLIERS PAYS A VISIT
CHAPTER VIII. – MADAME MIDAS STRIKES ‘ILE’
CHAPTER IX. – LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM
CHAPTER X. – FRIENDS IN COUNCIL
CHAPTER XI. – THEODORE WOPPLES, ACTOR
CHAPTER XII. – HIGHWAY ROBBERY
CHAPTER XIII. – A GLIMPSE OF BOHEMIA
CHAPTER XIV. – A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
CHAPTER XV. – SLIVERS IN SEARCH OF EVIDENCE
CHAPTER XVI. – MCINTOSH SPEAKS HIS MIND
CHAPTER XVII. – THE BEST OF FRIENDS MUST PART
CHAPTER XVIII. – M. VANDELOUP IS UNJUSTLY SUSPECTED
CHAPTER XIX. – THE DEVIL’S LEAD
PART II
CHAPTER I. – TEMPUS FUGIT
CHAPTER II. – DISENCHANTMENT
CHAPTER III. – M. VANDELOUP HEARS SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE
CHAPTER IV. – THE CASE OF ADELE BLONDET
CHAPTER V. – THE KEY OF THE STREET
CHAPTER VI. – ON CHANGE
CHAPTER VII. – THE OPULENCE OF MADAME MIDAS
CHAPTER VIII. – M. VANDELOUP IS SURPRISED
CHAPTER IX. – A PROFESSIONAL PHILANTHROPIST
CHAPTER X. – IN THE FERNERY
CHAPTER XI. – THE VISION OF MISS KITTY MARCHURST
CHAPTER XII. – A STARTLING DISCOVERY
CHAPTER XIII. – DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND
CHAPTER XIV. – CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
CHAPTER XV. – KISMET
CHAPTER XVI. – BE SURE THY SIN WILL FIND THEE OUT
EPILOGUE – THE WAGES OF SIN
Отрывок из книги
In the early days of Australia, when the gold fever was at its height, and the marvellous Melbourne of to-day was more like an enlarged camp than anything else, there was a man called Robert Curtis, who arrived in the new land of Ophir with many others to seek his fortune. Mr Curtis was of good family, but having been expelled from Oxford for holding certain unorthodox opinions quite at variance with the accepted theological tenets of the University, he had added to his crime by marrying a pretty girl, whose face was her fortune, and who was born, as the story books say, of poor but honest parents. Poverty and honesty, however, were not sufficient recommendations in the eyes of Mr Curtis, senior, to excuse such a match; so he promptly followed the precedent set by Oxford, and expelled his son from the family circle. That young gentleman and his wife came out to Australia filled with ambitious dreams of acquiring a fortune, and then of returning to heap coals of fire on the heads of those who had turned them out.
These dreams, however, were destined never to be realised, for within a year after their arrival in Melbourne Mrs Curtis died giving birth to a little girl, and Robert Curtis found himself once more alone in the world with the encumbrance of a small child. He, however, was not a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, and did not show much outward grief, though, no doubt, he sorrowed deeply enough for the loss of the pretty girl for whom he had sacrificed so much. At all events, he made up his mind at once what to do: so, placing his child under the care of an old lady, he went to Ballarat, and set to work to make his fortune.
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Archie did not reply, for he was too much occupied in lighting his candle to answer, and, moreover, knew nothing about romances, and cared still less. So they went on sliding down noiselessly into the gloom, while the water, falling from all parts of the shaft, kept splashing constantly on the top of the cage and running in little streams over their shoulders.
‘It’s like a nightmare,’ thought the Frenchman, with a nervous shudder, as he saw the wet walls gleaming in the faint light of the candle. ‘Worthy of Dante’s “Inferno”.’
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