Charles Kingsley - "Plays and Puritans"

Herman Melville - "Moby Dick; or The Whale"

John Lothrop Motley - "The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1568"

John William Draper - "History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: Herb of Grace

R >> Rosa Nouchette Carey >> Herb of Grace




"I am afraid you will be shocked," she said presently, "but I do not
think I shall be so dreadfully disappointed if Cedric does fail in
his Civil Service Examination. He might have to go to India, you
see, and it would be so much nicer to keep him in England."

"The heart of man, and woman too, is deceitful and desperately
wicked," and Elizabeth heaved a deep sigh. "To think that you can be
so selfish, Die, as to build up your happiness on the poor lad's
ruined hopes," and then she burst out laughing and took her sister
by the shoulders. "Grannie," she said solemnly, "you just idolise
that boy. If it would do him any good you would lie down and let him
trample on you. Have I not often warned you that if you go on like
this you will turn him out a full-fledged tyrant? Human nature--
masculine human nature I mean," correcting herself--"will not stand
it. An enfant gate is always odious to sensible people. Now, if you
were to try and spoil me," expanding herself until she looked twice
her size, "I should only bloom out into fresh beauty--approbation,
commendation, blindfold admiration would be meat and drink to me. I
have the digestion of a young ostrich," continued Elizabeth blandly-
-"nothing would be too difficult for me to swallow. As for satiety,
my dear creature, you need never expect to hear me call out, 'Eheu,
jain satis.'"

"Dear Betty, how you do talk," Dinah's usual formula; "and how I do
love to hear you," she inwardly added. "But it is very late, and we
shall have a tiring day to-morrow."

Dinah spoke in her cheery way, but when she was in her own room her
sweet face grew pensive and a little sad. Was there not an element
of truth under Elizabeth's jokes? Did she not make an idol of her
young brother? Was she altogether reasonable on the subject?

"If I am weak, I trust such weakness will be forgiven me," she
whispered as she stood in the perfumed darkness, with a wandering
summer wind playing refreshingly round her, and tears from some
hidden fount of sadness stole down her cheeks. "If he were my own
child he could not be dearer to me. I remember my stepmother once
told me so. 'My boy has two mothers, Dinah,' these were her very
words. Well, he is my Son of Consolation," and Dinah heaved a gentle
sigh, as though the motherhood within her, the divine maternal
instinct inherent in all true women, felt itself satisfied.

At breakfast the next morning Malcolm proffered his services; but
Elizabeth assured him that Cedric and Johnson would do all that was
required, so he spent his morning indolently down by the Pool--
reading and indulging in his favourite daydreams--until Cedric
joined him.

Cedric looked heated and tired.

"I never saw such a person as Betty for getting work out of a
fellow," he grumbled. "She would do splendidly on a rice plantation-
-wouldn't the niggers fly just! Why, she set me rolling the tennis
lawn, because she wanted Johnson; and then I had to bicycle over to
Rotherwood for something that had been forgotten. I took it out in
cool drinks though, I can tell you. My word, Bet does know how to
make prime claret cup"--and Cedric smacked his lips with the air of
a veteran gourmand; and then he sparred at Malcolm, and called him
an absent-minded beggar, and asked if he had finished his ode to the
naiad of the Pool, and made sundry other aggravating remarks, which
proved that he was in excellent spirits and only wanted to find a
safety-valve.

Just before the first carriage drove up, Malcolm, who was standing
by Elizabeth on the terrace, suggested that she and Mr. Carlyon
should give him and Cedric their revenge; but she told him quite
seriously that they must not think of it for the present.

"The sets are all arranged, and Dinah and I must devote ourselves to
our guests," she remarked; and as this was only reasonable, Malcolm
said no more.

"I am going to introduce you to Tina Ross," she continued. "There
she and her sister Patty are just coming up the drive now. She is a
very good player, and your opponents will be Nora Brent and Mr.
Carlyon."

"We are under orders, Herrick," observed David with mock humility;
and then the introduction was made and the little white and blue
fairy walked off demurely enough with Malcolm.

Tina Ross was certainly a very pretty girl; she had one of those
babyish sort of faces that appeal so strongly to some men; her
manners were kittenish and full of vivacity, and she had a way of
glancing at a person from under her long curling lashes that was
considered very alluring. "Do please be good and kind to a poor
little harmless thing like me," they seemed to say to each fresh
comer, "for you are such a nice man;" but Malcolm, who saw plenty of
girls in town, took no notice of a little country chit's airs and
graces; indeed, he thought Nora Brent far more attractive--human
kittens not being to his taste.

"I don't think much of the fine gentleman from London," whispered
Tina rather venomously to Nora when the game was finished. "I hate a
town prig like poison."

"Anyhow he played splendidly, and has given us a regular beating,"
returned her friend, who would willingly have exchanged partners.
There was nothing exciting in playing with an old friend like David
Carlyon, who was a sort of connection of the Brents, indeed, a
distant, a very distant cousin: but Malcolm's dark intellectual face
and rather melancholy eyes somewhat attracted Nora.

Nora had her wish presently, and again Mr. Carlyon was Malcolm's
opponent; this time a Miss Douglas was his partner. It was a well-
contested game, but again Malcolm was the victor; but he wore his
honours meekly.

"Bravo, Mr. Herrick, and you too, Nora," exclaimed Elizabeth,
clapping her hands, "you both played splendidly; now come into the
hall and let me give you some claret cup;" but she lingered a moment
until Mr. Carlyon came up with his partner.

"I am not in good form to-day," he said, sinking into an easy-chair
as though he were tired. "I feel Mondayish--do you know what I mean,
Herrick?"

"I can guess. It is a purely clerical term. You have taken it out of
yourself, and then you feel a sort of reaction--or rather, to speak
more correctly, a sort of depression;" but as he spoke, he realised
for the first time the truth of Elizabeth's assertion that Mr.
Carlyon was not strong.

Elizabeth had never looked better in Malcolm's opinion than she did
that afternoon; if he had not admired her before, he must have owned
then that she was a distinguished-looking woman.

She wore a gray dress of some soft material, which Malcolm, who was
rather a connoisseur on feminine attire, decided in his own mind was
a Paris gown,--strange to say, he was right,--and the black
Gainsborough hat and feathers suited her exactly. It was evident Mr.
Carlyon agreed with him, for Malcolm saw him once looking at her
intently under his hand.

A little while afterwards Malcolm, who was too hot to play any more,
strolled off by himself down one of the woodland paths to get cool,
but to his chagrin he heard voices which told him the speakers were
parallel with him, and the next minute he heard Tina Ross say
pettishly--

"Did you ever see any one so ridiculous as Elizabeth Templeton; just
fancy wearing her Paris gown at a trumpery little home affair like
this! Talk of coquetry," in a disgusted voice, "do you suppose she
did not know what she was doing when she pinned those La France
roses in her dress! It is not as though she were our age; she is
thirty--thirty; why, that is quite an old maid!"

"How can you be so absurd, Tiny?" It was Nora Brent who spoke.
"Fancy calling Miss Elizabeth Templeton an old maid. Mamma was only
saying how handsome she looked." Here Malcolm coughed rather loudly,
but no one took any notice.

"Handsome is as handsome does," returned Tina, in rather a vixenish
tone. "I hope you noticed, Nora, that I was never allowed to have
Mr. Carlyon for a partner. Talk of Queen Elizabeth indeed--we have
Queen Elizabeth the second at Staplegrove. If one spoke to the poor
man it was 'hands off--don't poach on my preserves,' just as though
she thought him her own property, which he is not, and never will
be."

"Really, Tina, you are too bad; you ought not to say such things of
our dear Miss Elizabeth. You had Mr. Herrick for your partner."

"Oh, he is a town prig," began Tina recklessly; but here Malcolm,
who had cleared his voice in vain, now began to whistle with such
unmistakable purpose that a dead silence ensued.

"What a spiteful little toad!" thought Malcolm, who cared nothing
for fluffy hair and curling eyelashes if a shrewish tongue
accompanied them.

He thought both the girls avoided him in rather a guilty fashion
when he passed them on the terrace; and he was inwardly disgusted
when, most of the guests having taken their leave, and supper being
announced, Elizabeth asked him to take Miss Tina Ross into the
dining-room; Nora followed with Mr. Carlyon, but the width of the
table separated him. Malcolm paid the young lady proper attention;
that is to say, he kept her plate supplied with good things, but
otherwise he took very little notice of her, and talked to gentle-
looking Mrs. Brent, who was on his other side.

But Tina was not used to being ignored, and by this time she had
made up her mind that Malcolm could only have heard a fragment of
their talk in the woodlands, so she addressed him pointedly, and
obliged him to break off something he was saying to the elder lady.

"So you dined at the vicarage on Saturday, I hear. How dreadfully
bored you must have been! Mr. Charrington is an old dear, but he is
rather a prig. I mean"--transfixed by the sudden gleam in Malcolm's
eyes--"I mean, that is--that he is so learned."

"Oh, I am quite aware of your meaning, Miss Ross," returned Malcolm
quietly, "but I am rather an embryo prig myself." Then for the
remainder of the meal Tina was absolutely dumb.




CHAPTER XVII

"ADIEU--AU REVOIR"


If there is power in me to help,
It goeth forth beyond the present will,
Clothing itself in very common deeds
Of any humble day's necessity.
MACDONALD.

The pleasantest part of the whole evening to Malcolm was the hour
spent on the terrace when the last guests were gone. The Brents had
undertaken to drive Mr. Carlyon to the White Cottage, much to the
chagrin of the Ross girls, whose homeward route took them through
Rotherwood, and who also had a seat to spare. Malcolm had a dim
suspicion that Elizabeth had connived at this arrangement.

"You had better go with the Brents if they ask you," she had said
earlier in the evening, but he had not heard Mr. Carlyon's reply.

"Well, what do you think of little Tina?" asked Elizabeth. They were
standing by the drawing-room window; Malcolm could see the
mischievous look in her eyes, and refused to be drawn.

"Most people would admire her," he returned coolly.

"But unfortunately you are the exception--is that what you mean, Mr.
Herrick? What a shame not to admire our pretty little blue-eyed
kitten!"

"Kittens can scratch," he returned quietly; and then Elizabeth
looked more amused than ever.

"What, has Tina shown her claws to you? I thought she always wore
her velvet gloves for strangers. I fancied I was doing you a good
turn to introduce you to the prettiest girl in Rotherwood. She and
Patty will be rich too, for there is no son, and Mr. Ross is very
wealthy."

"Made his fortune on the Stock Exchange," explained Cedric. "Clever
old chap--shouldn't mind if he would give me the straight tip. I
tell you what, Die," and here Cedric lit himself another cigarette,
"if I come a cropper in the exam, the Stock Exchange would not be a
bad place for me to make my little pile."

It was impossible not to laugh at Dinah's horrified face.

"Don't believe him, Die," observed Elizabeth calmly. "Cedric has no
vocation for a business man--he is only teasing you. Yes, Tina and
Patty will have plenty of money," but as Malcolm did not seem to
warm up to any interest, Elizabeth with much tact changed the
subject, and they were soon discussing the other guests.

When Malcolm woke the next morning his first feeling was regret that
his visit was over. He had accepted Cedric's invitation with
reluctance, and had put him off again and again. He had a remorseful
consciousness that he might have been a guest at the Wood House
eighteen months ago. By this time he would have been intimate with
the sisters. He might--but here Malcolm leapt rather impatiently
from his couch. What was the good of thinking over past mistakes! He
had been a fool, and stood in his own light--that was all. During
breakfast he was very cheerful, and seemed in such excellent spirits
that the passing thought occurred to Elizabeth that Mr. Herrick was
not sorry that his visit had ended.

"We are not clever enough for him," she said to herself regretfully;
but Malcolm's next speech dispelled this idea.

Dinah had just expressed her regret at losing him.

"I have no wish to go, I assure you," was his reply; "I have never
spent a happier week in my life. But you know in another two or
three weeks I hope to be settled at the Crow's Nest. We shall be
near neighbours then." He looked at Elizabeth as he spoke. It struck
him that she was a little embarrassed. Her colour rose, and there
was a slight pucker in her brow, as though something perplexed her;
but the next minute it was gone.

"In that case we must fix the date for the Templeton Bean-feast,"
she remarked briskly. "Mr. Herrick," her voice changing to
earnestness, "will it be quite impossible for Miss Sheldon to come
to our garden-party. We could put her up easily--and it is really
rather a pretty sight. We had two hundred people last year, and the
Hungarian band."

"It was rattling good sport," chimed in Cedric. "There were fifteen
of our fellows sleeping at 'The Plough,' because we had a dance in
the evening; not only our house, but Hazel Beach, the Ross's house,
and Brentwood Place, where Colonel Brent lives, were crammed with
guests. People talked about it for a month afterwards."

"It cost a great deal of money," observed Dinah, in rather an
alarmed voice. "We could not do that sort of thing again. You see,
Mr. Herrick, it was really to make up to Cedric because he had no
party when he came of age. I was ill just then, and we had to go
away."

"No, no, you are quite right, Die, we must keep our Bean-feast
within limits," returned Elizabeth soothingly. "We thought of fixing
the twentieth of August," she continued, addressing Malcolm. "That
is nearly a month later than last year, I expect most of our inner
circle friends will be away, but we shall have a good house-party;
and with some of Cedric's Oxford friends we shall be able to infuse
sufficient new life into our country clique. Well, Mr. Herrick, is
that likely to suit Miss Sheldon?"

"I am afraid not," he returned regretfully, for he was really quite
touched at this thoughtfulness on her part. And how Anna would have
loved it! "They will be at Whitby by that time. But I will tell her
of your kind thought for her." And then, as it was getting late, for
they had lingered pleasantly over the meal, he went off to make his
preparations, and half an hour afterwards the dog-cart was brought
to the door.

"Good-bye, we shall miss you so much," observed Dinah almost
affectionately; "but we shall see plenty of you when you are at the
Crow's Nest."

"I hope so. Thank you, dear Miss Templeton, for all your kind
hospitality," and then it was Elizabeth's turn.

"Adieu--au revoir, Mr. Herrick," but she pressed his hand very
kindly as she spoke, and her eyes had a friendly beam in them.

"Au revoir, and thanks to you too," returned Malcolm; but the smile
on his face was a little forced.

As the dog-cart turned the corner he looked back. The sisters were
still standing side by side. Elizabeth waved her hand. She was no
longer the stately-looking woman in the Paris gown and picture hat,
who had moved with such a queenly step among her guests. This was a
far homelier Elizabeth, in the old striped blouse and battered
garden hat, only this morning Malcolm found no fault with it. He was
very silent for some time, but as he leant back in the dog-cart with
folded arms and closely compressed lips, there was a glow in his
dark eyes that somewhat contradicted his outward calmness.

"And you are going down to the Manor House on Thursday," observed
Cedric, as they came in sight of the station. "What a pity my Henley
visit is put off till the following week, or we might have had a
good old time together."

"Oh, I don't know," rather absently; "you will be too much taken up
with your new friends to want an old stager like me."

"You are wrong there," returned the lad eagerly. "I should be glad
to have your opinion of"--he hesitated, and then finished lamely,
"of the Jacobis, I mean. You are such a judge of character, and all
that sort of thing."

"Am I?" with a smile; but they had no time to say more, as the
London train was signalled.

An hour and a half later Malcolm was in his chambers in Lincoln's
Inn, opening his letters and dashing off replies, to be posted in
due time by the obsequious Malachi. Malcolm found so much to occupy
him that he decided not to go to Queen's Gate until the following
evening, and sent Anna a line to that effect. He felt a quiet
evening at Cheyne Walk would be more in harmony with his feelings.

As he crossed the broad space at the foot of the steps in Lincoln's
Inn, he overtook Caleb Martin wheeling the perambulator. Kit had her
new doll hugged in her thin little arms.

"Oh, dad, do stop," she exclaimed eagerly; "it is the gentleman what
gave me my baby;" and then Malcolm stepped up to the perambulator.

"Kit has been looking out for you the last week, sir," observed
Caleb in his humble, flurried way. "She won't even take notice of
the pigeons; her heart is so set on thanking you for the doll. It is
my belief that she thinks it is alive the way she goes on with it."

"My baby's asleep--should you like to see her open her eyes?" asked
Kit with maternal pride. "She has blue eyes, she has, like dad's and
mine--only prettier. She is just the beautifullest thing I ever saw,
ain't she, dad? and Ma'am says she must have cost a lot."

Malcolm smiled, but there was a pitiful look in his eyes. Even in
these few days Kit's face had grown thinner and more pinched, and
the shrill voice was weaker. There was no longer a stiff halo of
curls under the sun-bonnet; they hung in limp wisps about her face.

"Has the child been ill?" he asked, and then Caleb looked at him in
a dazed, nervous fashion.

"Not to call ill, sir, but just a bit piny and dwiny from the heat.
Our place is like the Black Hole of Calcutta for stuffiness. She is
that languid and fretty that we can't get her to eat, so my wife
made me take her out for an airing."

Malcolm pondered for a moment. Then a sudden inspiration came to
him. There was a fruiterer in the Strand, and he was just thinking
of carrying a basket of fruit to Verity. He bade Caleb follow him
slowly, and a few minutes later a great bunch of roses and a paper
bag of white-heart cherries and another of greengages were packed
into the perambulator; some sponge-cakes and a crisp little brown
loaf were also purchased for Kit's tea, and then they went rejoicing
on their way. As Malcolm walked on he made up his mind that his
first act when he arrived at the Crow's Nest would be to take
counsel with Elizabeth. "The child will die if something is not done
for her," he said to himself; "perhaps she will be able to suggest
something;" but it never occurred to him to confide in his mother.
"Individual cases do not appeal to her," he had once said to Anna.
"She prefers to work on a more extended scale," and though Anna
contradicted this with unusual warmth, Malcolm had some grounds for
his sweeping assertion.

Malcolm spent the evening very pleasantly discussing future
arrangements with his friends. To his satisfaction the room he
coveted was at once allotted to him, with the title of "The
Prophet's Chamber;" and, as he professed himself quite content with
the bedroom in the garden-house, matters were soon settled, and both
Verity and Amias looked pleased when Malcolm announced his intention
of spending most of his summer vacation at the Crow's Nest. They
talked a good deal about the Wood House. Malcolm gave graphic
descriptions of the house and the garden and the Pool, and he also
drew rather a charming picture of the elder Miss Templeton.

"She is lovely in my opinion," he said in his enthusiastic way. "I
quite long for you to see her, Verity. She is just a gray-haired
girl. She has the secret of perpetual youth. She is as guileless and
simple as a child--any one could deceive her, and yet she is wise
too."

"And her sister?" asked Verity, as Malcolm paused.

"Oh, Miss Elizabeth Templeton is quite different," returned Malcolm
hurriedly, as he filled his pipe; "it is not easy to describe her--
you must judge of her yourself."

"Then she is not as nice as this wonderful Dinah?" observed Verity
in a disappointed tone.

"Oh, yes, she is quite as nice," he returned briefly; "but the
sisters are utterly dissimilar." And not another word could Verity,
with all her teasing, extract from Malcolm.

"I should like you to be perfectly unbiassed in your opinion," he
remarked sententiously. Verity made a naughty little face in the
darkness.

"I wonder if it is the Crow's Nest, our society, or Miss Elizabeth
Templeton that is the attraction," she thought. But, being a loyal
little soul, she never hinted at a certain suspicion that had taken
possession of her mind, even to her husband.

Malcolm received a warm welcome from his mother and Anna the next
evening. He found them sitting by one of the open windows in the
large drawing-room. Mrs. Herrick was working, and Anna was reading
to her. The sun-blinds had just been raised, and the fresh evening
air blew refreshingly through the wide room. The tall green palms
behind them made a pleasant background to Anna's white dress. It
struck Malcolm that she looked paler and more tired, and her eyes
had a heavy, languid look. To his surprise Mrs. Herrick spoke of it
at once.

"Anna is not looking her best this evening, Malcolm," she said as he
sat down between them; "this great heat tries her. Dr. Armstrong
thinks we ought to leave town as soon as possible, so we are going
to Whitby a week earlier."

"Mother has cancelled a lot of her engagements," observed Anna,
looking at her affectionately. "I am so sorry to give her all this
trouble." But Mrs. Herrick would not allow her to finish.

"Mothers are only too glad to take trouble for their children," she
said kindly. "Anna has been behaving badly, Malcolm; she fainted at
church on Sunday, and had one of her worst sick headaches
afterwards."

There was unmistakable anxiety in Malcolm's eyes when he heard this,
but Anna only laughed it off. The church was hot, she said, any one
might have fainted. But the sea-breezes would soon set her up; they
had beautiful rooms quite close to the sea, with a wide balcony
where they could spend their evenings.

"I hope you will come down to us for a week or two," observed his
mother presently. Malcolm felt rather a twinge of conscience as he
replied that he feared this was impossible; he had some literary
work on hand, which he intended to do at Staplegrove. Mrs. Keston
was able to spare him a nice room, which he could use as a study;
and so he had made his arrangements. And then he added rather
regretfully that, as he was going to the Manor House the following
afternoon, he feared that he should not see them again. Mrs. Herrick
said no more, she was not a woman to waste words unnecessarily; but
she was undoubtedly much disappointed, and even a little hurt, and
for the moment Anna looked grave. At dinnertime she made an effort
to recover her spirits, and questioned Malcolm about his new
acquaintances at the Wood House; and on this occasion he was less
reticent.

But it was not until his mother had left them alone together that he
told Anna of Elizabeth's kind invitation.

A surprised flush came to the girl's face.

"Do you think you could possibly manage it, dear?" he asked with
brotherly solicitude. But he was sorry to see how her lips trembled.

"Oh no--no, you must not tempt me," very hurriedly; "it is quite--
quite impossible. I must not think of it for a moment, Malcolm,"
trying to speak calmly. "I am so grateful to you for not speaking of
this before mother; it would trouble her so, and quite spoil her
pleasure; mother is so sharp, she always finds out things, and she
would know at once that I should like to go to the Wood House."

"Then I was right when I told Miss Elizabeth so," returned Malcolm.
"It is just the place you would like, Anna; I know you would be
happy with those kind women."

"I do not doubt it for a moment," and Anna's voice was rather
melancholy. "I should so love to know your friends, Malcolm; it all
sounds so lovely, and you would be near, and--and it was so dear of
Miss Elizabeth to think of it. Will you thank her for me, Malcolm,
and tell her that mother needs me so much, and that she has no one
else."