It so fell that one dark evening in the month of June I was belated in the Bernese Oberland. Dusk overtook me toiling along the great Chamounix Road, and in the heart of a most desolate gorge, whose towering snow-flung walls seemed–as the day sucked inwards to a point secret as a leech’s mouth–to close […]

My friend, Monsieur —-, absolutely declines to append his name to these pages, of which he is the virtual author. Nevertheless, he permits me to publish them anonymously, being, indeed, a little curious to ascertain what would have been the public verdict as to his sanity, had he given his personal imprimatur to a narrative […]

“My grandfather,” said the banjo, “drank ‘dog’s-nose,’ my father drank ‘dog’s-nose,’ and I drink ‘dog’s-nose.’ If that ain’t heredity, there’s no virtue in the board schools.” “Ah!” said the piccolo, “you’re always a-boasting of your science. And so, I suppose, your son’ll drink ‘dog’s-nose,’ too?” “No,” retorted the banjo, with a rumbling laugh, like wind […]

“I’d not go higher, sir,” said my landlady’s father. I made out his warning through the shrill piping of the wind; and stopped and took in the plunging seascape from where I stood. The boom of the waves came up from a vast distance beneath; sky and the horizon of running water seemed hurrying upon […]

This is the story of William Tyrwhitt, who went to King’s Cobb for rest and change, and, with the latter, at least, was so far accommodated as for a time to get beyond himself and into regions foreign to his experiences or his desires. And for this condition of his I hold myself something responsible, […]

I had slept but two nights at King’s Cobb, when I saw distinctly that the novel with which I was to revolutionize society and my own fortunes, and with the purpose of writing which in an unvexed seclusion I had buried myself in this expedient hamlet on the South Coast, was withered in the bud […]

I “George,” said Plancine. “Please say it again,” said George. She dimpled at him and obeyed, with the soft suggestion of accent that was like a tender confidence. Her feet were sunk in Devonshire grass; her name was on the birth register of a little Devonshire sea-town; yet the sun of France was in her […]

PART I OF POLYHISTOR’S NARRATIVE WRITTEN FOR, BUT NEVER INSERTED IN, THE —– FAMILY MAGAZINE The eyes of Polyhistor–as he sat before the fire at night–took in the tawdry surroundings of his lodging-house room with nothing of that apathy of resignation to his personal [Greek: ananke] which of all moods is to Fortune, the goddess […]

On a day early in the summer of the present year Miss Dinah Groom was found lying dead off a field-path of the little obscure Wiltshire village which she had named her “rest and be thankful.” At the date of her decease she was not an old woman, though any one marking her white hair […]

PROEM Heaven’s Nursery “Sinner, sinner, whence do you come?”“From the bitter earth they called my home.” “Sinner, sinner, why do you wait?”“I fear to knock at the golden gate: “My crimes were heavy; my doom is sure,And I dread the anguish I must endure.” “Had you ever a child down there?”“One–but it died, and I […]

“Signor, we are arrived,” whispered the old man in my ear; and he put out a sudden cold hand, corded like melon rind, to stay me in the stumbling darkness. We were on a tilted table-land of the mountain; and, looking forth and below, the far indigo crescent of the bay, where it swept towards […]