Lady Good-for-Nothing

Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

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• Publié par: phoen
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 20
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lady Good-for-
Nothing, by A. T. Quiller-Couch
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Title: Lady Good-for-Nothing
Author: A. T. Quiller-Couch
Release Date: March 2, 2005 [eBook #15228]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK LADY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING***
E-text prepared by Lionel Sear
LADY GOOD-FOR-NOTHINGA Man's Portrait of a Woman
by
ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH ('Q')
First Published in 1910.
This story originally appeared in the weekly edition
of the "Times," and is now issued in book form by
arrangement with the Proprietors of that Journal.
TO My Commodore and old Friend Edward
Atkinson, Esq. of Rosebank, Mixtow-by-Fowey.
NOTE
Some years ago an unknown American friend
proposed my writing a story on the loves and
adventures of Sir Harry Frankland, Collector of the
Port of Boston in the mid-eighteenth century, and
Agnes Surriage, daughter of a poor Marble-head
fisherman. The theme attracted me as it has
attracted other writers—and notably Oliver Wendell
Holmes, who built a poem on it. But while their
efforts seemed to leave room for another, I was no
match for them in knowledge of the facts or of localdetails; and, moreover, these facts and details
cramped my story. I repented, therefore and,
taking the theme, altered the locality and the
characters—who, by the way, in the writing have
become real enough to me, albeit in a different
sense. Thus (I hope) no violence has been offered
to historical truth, while I have been able to tell the
tale in my own fashion.
"Q."
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.—PORT NASSAU.
I. THE BEACH.
II. PORT NASSAU.
III. TWO GUINEAS.
IV. FATHER AND SON.
V. RUTH.
VI. PARENTHETICAL—OF THE FAMILY OF
VYELL.VII. A SABBATH-BREAKER.
VIII. ANOTHER SABBATH-BREAKER.
IX. THE SCOURGE.
X. THE BENCH.
XI. THE STOCKS.
XII. THE HUT BY THE BEACH.
XIII. RUTH SETS OUT.
BOOK II.—PROBATION.
I. AFTER TWO YEARS.
II. MR. SILK.
III. MR. HICHENS.
IV. VASHTI.
V. SIR OLIVER'S HEALTH.
VI. CAPTAIN HARRY AND MR. HANMER.VII. FIRST OFFER.
VIII. CONCERNING MARGARET.
IX. THE PROSPECT.
X. THREE LADIES.
XI. THE ESPIAL.
XII. LADY CAROLINE.
XIII. DIANA VYELL.
XIV. MR. SILK PROPOSES.
XV. THE CHOOSING.
BOOK III.—THE BRIDALS.
I. BETROTHED.
II. THE RETURN.
III. NESTING.
IV. THE BRIDEGROOM.V. RUTH'S WEDDING DAY.
VI. "YET HE WILL COME—".
VII. HOUSEKEEPING.
VIII. HOME-COMING.
BOOK IV.—LADY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING.
I. BATTY LANGTON, CHRONICLER.
II. SIR OLIVER SAILS.
III. MISCALCULATING WRATH.
IV. THE TERRACE.
V. A PROLOGUE TO NOTHING.
VI. CHILDLESS MOTHER.
BOOK V.—LISBON AND AFTER.
I. ACT OF FAITH.II. DONNA MARIA.
III. EARTHQUAKE.
IV. THE SEARCH.
V. THE FINDING.
VI. DOCUMENTS.
VII. THE LAST OFFER.
EPILOGUE
"An innocent life, yet far astray." Wordsworth's
Ruth.
BOOK I.PORT NASSAU.
Chapter I.
THE BEACH.
A coach-and-six, as a rule, may be called an
impressive Object.
But something depends on where you see it.
Viewed from the tall cliffs—along the base of
which, on a strip of beach two hundred feet below,
it crawled between the American continent and the
Atlantic Ocean—Captain Oliver Vyell's coach-and-
six resembled nothing so nearly as a black-beetle.
For that matter the cliffs themselves, swept by the
spray and humming with the roar of the beach—
even the bald headland towards which they curved
as to the visible bourne of all things terrestrial—
shrank in comparison with the waste void beyond,
where sky and ocean weltered together after the
wrestle of a two days' storm; and in comparison
with the thought that this rolling sky and heaving
water stretched all the way to Europe. Not a sail
showed, not a wing anywhere under the leaden
clouds that still dropped their rain in patches,
smurring out the horizon. The wind had died down,
but the ships kept their harbours and the sea-birds