MOUNT ROYAL
A Novel
BY THE AUTHOR OF "LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET" ETC. ETC. ETC.
In Three Volumes
VOL. I.
LONDON
JOHN AND ROBERT MAXWELL
MILTON HOUSE, SHOE LANE, FLEET STREET
1882
[All rights reserved]
Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO., EDINBURGH
CHANDOS STREET, LONDON
CONTENTS TO VOL. I.
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I. | THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE | 1 |
| II. | BUT THEN CAME ONE, THE LOVELACE OF HIS DAY | 35 |
| III. | "TINTAGEL, HALF IN SEA, AND HALF ON LAND" | 71 |
| IV. | "LOVE! THOU ART LEADING ME FROM WINTRY COLD" | 103 |
| V. | "THE SILVER ANSWER RANG,—'NOT DEATH, BUT LOVE'" | 128 |
| VI. | IN SOCIETY | 144 |
| VII. | CUPID AND PSYCHE | 199 |
| VIII. | LE SECRET DE POLICHINELLE | 228 |
| IX. | "LOVE IS LOVE FOR EVERMORE" | 275 |
MOUNT ROYAL.
CHAPTER I.
THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE.
"And he was a widower," said Christabel.
She was listening to an oft-told tale, kneeling in the firelight, at heraunt's knee, the ruddy glow tenderly touching her fair soft hair andfairer forehead, her big blue eyes lifted lovingly to Mrs. Tregonell'sface.
"And he was a widower, Aunt Diana," she repeated, with an expression ofdistaste, as if something had set her teeth on edge. "I cannot helpwondering that you could care for a widower—a man who had begun life bycaring for somebody else."
"Do you suppose any one desperately in love ever thinks of the past?"asked another voice out of the twilight. "Those infatuated creaturescalled lovers are too happy and contented with the rapture of thepresent."
"One would think you had tremendous experience, Jessie, by the way youlay down the law," said Christabel, laughing. "But I want to know whatAuntie has to say about falling in love with a widower."
"If you had ever seen him and known him, I don't think you would wonderat my liking him," answered Mrs. Tregonell, lying back in her armchair,and talking of the story of her life in a placid way, as if it were theplot of a novel, so thoroughly does time smooth the rough edge of grief."When he came to my father's house, his young wife had been dead justtwo years—she died three days after the birth of her first child—andCaptain Hamle