Lady Audley's Secret

LUCY. It lay down in a hollow, rich with fine old timber and luxuriant pastures; and you came upon it through an avenue of limes, bordered on either side by meadows, over the high...

ON BOARD THE ARGUS. He threw the end of his cigar into the water, and leaning his elbows upon the bulwarks, stared meditatively at the waves. "How wearisome they are," he said; "...

HIDDEN RELICS. The same August sun which had gone down behind the waste of waters glimmered redly upon the broad face of the old clock over that ivy-covered archway which leads in...

IN THE FIRST PAGE OF "THE TIMES." Robert Audley was supposed to be a barrister. As a barrister was his name inscribed in the law-list; as a barrister he had chambers in Figtree Co...

THE HEADSTONE AT VENTNOR. Yes, there it was in black and white—"Helen Talboys, aged 22." When George told the governess on board the Argus that if he heard any evil tidings of hi...

ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE OUT OF THE WORLD. When they returned to Lansdowne Cottage they found the old man had not yet come in, so they walked down to the beach to look for him. After a ...

AFTER A YEAR. The first year of George Talboys' widowhood passed away, the deep band of crepe about his hat grew brown and dusty, and as the last burning day of another August fad...

BEFORE THE STORM. So the dinner at Audley Court was postponed, and Miss Alicia had to wait still longer for an introduction to the handsome young widower, Mr. George Talboys. I a...

AFTER THE STORM. Sir Michael was mistaken in his prophecy upon the weather. The storm did not hold off until next day, but burst with terrible fury over the village of Audley abou...

MISSING. When Robert Audley awoke he was surprised to see the fishing-rod lying on the bank, the line trailing idly in the water, and the float bobbing harmlessly up and down in t...

THE MARK UPON MY LADY'S WRIST. Robert found Sir Michael and Lady Audley in the drawing-room. My lady was sitting on a music-stool before the grand piano, turning over the leaves o...

STILL MISSING. The September sunlight sparkled upon the fountain in the Temple Gardens when Robert Audley returned to Figtree Court early the following morning. He found the cana...

TROUBLED DREAMS. Robert Audley left Southampton by the mail, and let himself into his chambers just as the dawn was creeping cold and gray into the solitary rooms, and the canarie...

PHOEBE'S SUITOR. "Mr. George Talboys.—Any person who has met this gentleman since the 7th inst., or who possesses any information respecting him subsequent to that date, will be l...

ON THE WATCH. Upon a lowering morning late in November, with the yellow fog low upon the flat meadows, and the blinded cattle groping their way through the dim obscurity, and blun...

ROBERT AUDLEY GETS HIS CONGE. The Christmas week was over, and one by one the country visitors dropped away from Audley Court. The fat squire and his wife abandoned the gray, tape...

AT THE CASTLE INN. The little sitting-room into which Phoebe Marks ushered the baronet's nephew was situated on the ground floor, and only separated by a lath-and-plaster partitio...

ROBERT RECEIVES A VISITOR WHOM HE HAD SCARCELY EXPECTED. Eleven o'clock struck the next morning, and found Mr. Robert Audley still lounging over the well ordered little breakfast ...

THE WRITING IN THE BOOK. It was exactly five minutes past four as Mr. Robert Audley stepped out upon the platform at Shoreditch, and waited placidly until such time as his dogs an...

MRS. PLOWSON. Among the packet of letters which Robert Audley had found in George's trunk, there was one labeled with the name of the missing man's father—the father, who had neve...

LITTLE GEORGEY LEAVES HIS OLD HOME. "I am going to take your grandson away with me, Mr. Maldon," Robert said gravely, as Mrs. Plowson retired with her young charge. The old man's...

COMING TO A STANDSTILL. Mr. Harcourt Talboys lived in a prim, square, red-brick mansion, within a mile of a little village called Grange Heath, in Dorsetshire. The prim, square, r...

CLARA. Robert Audley found the driver asleep upon the box of his lumbering vehicle. He had been entertained with beer of so hard a nature as to induce temporary strangulation in t...

GEORGE'S LETTERS. Robert Audley did not return to Southampton, but took a ticket for the first up town train that left Wareham, and reached Waterloo Bridge an hour or two after da...

RETROGRADE INVESTIGATION. The dreary London January dragged its dull length slowly out. The last slender records of Christmas time were swept away, and Robert Audley still lingere...

SO FAR AND NO FARTHER. Robert left Audley the next morning by an early train, and reached Shoreditch a little after nine o'clock. He did not return to his chambers, but called a c...

BEGINNING AT THE OTHER END. Robert Audley walked slowly through the leafless grove, under the bare and shadowless trees in the gray February atmosphere, thinking as he went of the...

HIDDEN IN THE GRAVE. Upon his return from Wildernsea, Robert Audley found a letter from his Cousin Alicia, awaiting him at his chambers. "Papa is much better," the young lady wro...

IN THE LIME-WALK. Robert Audley was loitering upon the broad grass-plat in front of the Court as the carriage containing my lady and Alicia drove under the archway, and drew up at...

PREPARING THE GROUND. Lady Audley went from the garden to the library, a pleasant, oak-paneled, homely apartment in which Sir Michael liked to sit reading or writing, or arranging...

PHOEBE'S PETITION. The division between Lady Audley and her step-daughter had not become any narrower in the two months which had elapsed since the pleasant Christmas holiday time...

THE RED LIGHT IN THE SKY. My lady crushed the letter fiercely in her hand, and flung it from her into the flames. "If he stood before me now, and I could kill him," she muttered ...

THE BEARER OF THE TIDINGS. It was very late the next morning when Lady Audley emerged from her dressing-room, exquisitely dressed in a morning costume of delicate muslin, delicate...

MY LADY TELLS THE TRUTH. "Is there any room in which I can talk to you alone?" Robert Audley asked, as he looked dubiously round the hall. My lady only bowed her head in answer. ...

THE HUSH THAT SUCCEEDS THE TEMPEST. Robert Audley followed his uncle into the vestibule after Sir Michael had spoken those few quiet words which sounded the death-knell of his hop...

DR. MOSGRAVE'S ADVICE. My lady slept. Through that long winter night she slept soundly. Criminals have often so slept their last sleep upon earth; and have been found in the gray ...

BURIED ALIVE. Robert Audley sat alone in the library with the physician's letter upon the table before him, thinking of the work which was still to be done. The young barrister h...

GHOST-HAUNTED. No feverish sleeper traveling in a strange dream ever looked out more wonderingly upon a world that seemed unreal than Robert Audley, as he stared absently at the f...

THAT WHICH THE DYING MAN HAD TO TELL. Heaven knows whither Mr. Audley's thoughts might have wandered had he not been startled by a sudden movement of the sick man, who raised hims...

RESTORED. Clara Talboys returned to Dorsetshire, to tell her father that his only son had sailed for Australia upon the 9th of September, and that it was most probable he yet live...

AT PEACE. Two years have passed since the May twilight in which Robert found his old friend; and Mr. Audley's dream of a fairy cottage has been realized between Teddington Locks a...