(FROM THE NOTES OF A DINER-OUT) ‘Tell me,’ she said suddenly, with a pretty imperiousness that seemed to belong to her, ‘are you fond of dogs?’ How we arrived at the subject I forget now, but I know she had just been describing how a collie at a dog-show she had visited lately had suddenly […]

I have thought myself justified in printing the following narrative, found among the papers of my dead friend, Douglas Cameron, who left me discretion to deal with them as I saw fit. It was written indeed, as its opening words imply, rather for his own solace and relief than with the expectation that it would […]

It is towards the end of an afternoon in December, and Wilfred Rolleston is walking along a crowded London street with his face turned westward. A few moments ago and he was scarcely conscious of where he was or where he meant to go: he was walking on mechanically in a heavy stupor, through which […]

It was the night after Tommy had been taken to his first pantomime, and he had been lying asleep in his little bedroom (for now that he was nine he slept in the night nursery no longer); he had been asleep, when he was suddenly awakened by a brilliant red glare. At first he was […]

BEING THE PERSONAL STATEMENT OF BEDELL GRUNCHER, M.A. There are certain misconceptions which a man who is prominently before the public is morally bound to combat–more for the sake of others than his own–as soon as it becomes probable that the popular estimate of his character may be shaken, if not shattered, should he hold […]

ACT THE FIRST WHERE IS THE ENEMY? It was a very hot afternoon, and Hazel, Hilary, and Cecily Jolliffe were sitting under the big cedar on the lawn at The Gables. Each had her racket by her side, and the tennis-court lay, smooth and inviting, close by; but they did not seem inclined to play […]

PART I It is a little singular that, upon an engagement becoming known and being discussed by the friends and acquaintances of the persons principally concerned, by far the most usual tone of comment should be a sorrowing wonder. That particular alliance is generally the very last that anybody ever expected. ‘What made him choose […]

A TALE FOR CHILDREN ‘Daisy, dearest,’ said Miss Millikin anxiously to her niece one afternoon, ‘do you think poor Don is quite the thing? He has seemed so very languid these last few days, and he is certainly losing his figure!’ Daisy was absorbed in a rather ambitious attempt to sketch the lake from the […]

It was on the way to Sandown Park that I met him first, on that horribly wet July afternoon when Bendigo won the Eclipse Stakes. He sat opposite to me in the train going down, and my attention was first attracted to him by the marked contrast between his appearance and his attire: he had […]

Her name was Priscilla Prodgers, and she was a very good little girl indeed. So good was she, in fact, that she could not help being aware of it herself, and that is a stage to which very many quite excellent persons never succeed in attaining. She was only just a child, it is true, […]

I have set myself the task of relating in the course of this story, without suppressing or altering a single detail, the most painful and humiliating episode of my life. I do this, not because it will give me the least pleasure, but simply because it affords me an opportunity of extenuating myself, which has […]