Charlotte's Inheritance

Elizabeth Braddon Mary

Description

In this sequel to Braddon's previous novel Birds of Prey, heroine Charlotte Halliday has endured a truly remarkable spell of bad luck, tragedy, and ill health, all the while maintaining her unflappable composure. Over time, it gradually begins to dawn on her that this series of misfortunes may not be as random as it seems.

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776591299
• Langue: English

Extrait

CHARLOTTE'S INHERITANCE
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MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON
 
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Charlotte's Inheritance First published in 1868 Epub ISBN 978-1-77659-129-9 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77659-130-5 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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BOOK THE FIRST - DE PROFUNDIS Chapter I - Lenoble of Beaubocage Chapter II - In this Wide World I Stand Alone Chapter III - "Past Hope, and in Despair" Chapter IV - A Decree of Banishment BOOK THE SECOND - DOWNHILL Chapter I - The Fate of Susan Lenoble Chapter II - Forgiven Too Late Chapter III - Gustave the Second BOOK THE THIRD - THE HORATIAD Chapter I - Chiefly Retrospective Chapter II - Epistolary Chapter III - Too Clever, for a Catspaw Chapter IV - Captain Paget is Paternal Chapter V - The Captain's Coadjutor BOOK THE FOURTH - GUSTAVE IN ENGLAND Chapter I - Halcyon Days Chapter II - Captain Paget Awakens to a Sense of His Duty Chapter III - "What Do We Here, My Heart and I?" Chapter IV - Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth BOOK THE FIFTH - THE FIRST ACT OF MR. SHELDON'S DRAMA Chapter I - Taken by Storm Chapter II - Firm as a Book Chapter III - Against Wind and Tide Chapter IV - Diana Asks for a Holiday Chapter V - Assurance Doubly Sure BOOK THE SIXTH - DIANA IN NORMANDY Chapter I - At Côtenoir BOOK THE SEVENTH - A CLOUD OF FEAR Chapter I - The Beginning of Sorrow Chapter II - Fading Chapter III - Mrs. Woolper is Anxious Chapter IV - Valentine's Skeleton Chapter V - At Harold's Hill Chapter VI - Desperate Measures BOOK THE EIGHTH - A FIGHT AGAINST TIME Chapter I - A Dread Revelation Chapter II - Phoenicians Are Rising Chapter III - The Sortes Virgilianæ BOOK THE NINTH - THROUGH THE FURNACE Chapter I - Something Too Much Chapter II - Dr. Jedd's Opinion Chapter III - Non Dormit Judas Chapter IV - Counting the Cost Chapter V - The Beginning of the End Chapter VI - Confusion Worse Confounded Chapter VII - "There is a Word Will Priam Turn to Stone" BOOK THE TENTH - HARBOUR, AFTER MANY SHIPWRECKS Chapter I - Out of the Dark Valley Chapter II - After the Wedding Chapter III - Greek Against Greek Chapter IV - Only a Dream Chapter V - Bohemian Independence Chapter VI - Beyond the Veil Chapter VII - Better than Gold Chapter VIII - Lost Sight Of Chapter IX - Eteocles and Polynices Chapter X - "According to Their Deeds"
BOOK THE FIRST - DE PROFUNDIS
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Chapter I - Lenoble of Beaubocage
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In the days when the Bourbon reigned over Gaul, before the "simple,sensuous, passionate" verse of Alfred de Musset had succeeded the débonnaire Muse of Béranger in the affections of young France,—in dayswhen the site of the Trocadero was a remote and undiscovered country, andthe word "exposition" unknown in the Academic dictionary, and the GallicAugustus destined to rebuild the city yet an exile,—a young law-studentboarded, in common with other students, in a big dreary-looking house atthe corner of the Rue Grande-Mademoiselle, abutting on the Place Lauzun,and within some ten minutes walk of the Luxembourg. It was a very dingyquarter, though noble gentlemen and lovely ladies had once occupied thegreat ghastly mansions, and disported themselves in the gruesome gardens.But the young students were in nowise oppressed by the ghastliness oftheir abode. They sang their Béranger, and they pledged each other incheap Bordeaux, and clinked their glasses noisily in their boisterousgood-fellowship, and ate the messes compounded for them in a darksomecupboard, known as the kitchen, by old Nanon the cook, purblind,stone-deaf, and all but imbecile, and popularly supposed to be thevenerable mother of Madame Magnotte. The youngsters grumbled to eachother about the messes when they were unusually mysterious; and it mustbe owned that there were vol-au-vents and fricandeaux consumed inthat establishment which were awful and wonderful in their nature; butthey ventured on no complaint to the mistress of the mansion. She was agrim and terrible personage. Her terms were low, and she treated herboarders de haute en bas . If they were not content with her viands,they might go and find more agreeable viands elsewhere.
Madame Magnotte was altogether mysterious and inscrutable. Some peoplesaid that she was a countess, and that the wealth and lands of her familyhad been confiscated by the committee of public unsafety in '93. Othersdeclared that she had been a popular actress in a small theatre in thedays of Napoleon. She was tall and thin—nay, of an exceptionalleanness—and her complexion was of a more agreeable yellow than thebutter that appeared on her hospitable board; but she had flashing blackeyes, and a certain stateliness of gait and grandeur of manner thatimpressed those young Bohemians, her boarders, with a kind of awe. Theytalked of her as the "countess," and by that name she was known to allinmates of the mansion; but in all their dealings with her they treatedher with unfailing respect.
One of the quietest among the young men who enjoyed the privileges ofMadame Magnotte's abode was a certain Gustave Lenoble, a law-student, theonly son of a very excellent couple who lived on their own estate, nearan obscure village in Normandy. The estate was of the smallest; adilapidated old house, known in the immediate neighbourhood as "theChâteau," and very dear to those who resided therein; a garden, in whicheverything seemed to have run to seed; and about forty acres of thepoorest land in Normandy. These possessions constituted the patrimonialestate of François Lenoble, propriétaire , of Beaubocage, nearVevinordin, the department of Eure.
The people amongst whom the good man lived his simple life called him M.Lenoble de Beaubocage, but he did not insist upon this distinction; andon sending out his only son to begin the battle of life in the greatworld of Paris, he recommended the young man to call himself Lenoble, tout court .
The young man had never cherished any other design. He was of allcreatures the least presuming or pretentious. The father was Legitimistto the very marrow; the son half Buonapartist, half republican. Thefather and son had quarrelled about these differences of opinionsometimes in a pleasantly disputatious manner; but no politicaldisagreement could lesser the love between these two. Gustave lovedhis parents as only a Frenchman can venture to love his father andmother—with a devotion for the gentleman that bordered on enthusiasm,with a fond reverence for the lady that was the very essence of chivalry.There was a sister, who regarded her brother Gustave as the embodiment ofall that is perfect in youthful mankind; and there were a couple of oldhouse-servants, a very stupid clumsy lad in the stables, and half a dozenold mongrel dogs, born and bred on the premises, who seemed to share theyoung lady's opinions. There was not a little discussion upon the subjectof Gustave Lenoble's future career; and it was not without difficultythat the father could be persuaded to approve the choice of a professionwhich the young man had made. The seigneur of Beaubocage cherished anexaggerated pride of race little suspected by those who saw his simplelife, and were pleased by his kindly unaffected manners. The house ofLenoble, at some remote and almost mythical period of history, haddistinguished itself in divers ways; and those bygone grandeurs, vagueand shadowy in the minds of all others, seemed very real to MonsieurLenoble. He assured his son that no Lenoble had ever been a lawyer. Theyhad been always lords of the soil, living on their own lands, which hadonce stretched wide and far in that Norman province; a fact proved bycertain maps in M. Lenoble's possession, the paper whereof was worn andyellow with age. They had stooped to no profession save that of arms. Oneseigneur of Beaubocage had fought under Bayard himself; another hadfallen at Pavia, on that great day when all was lost hormis l'honneur ;another had followed the white plume of the Bernais; another—but wasthere any need to tell of the glories of that house upon which Gustavewas so eager to inflict the disgrace of a learned profession?
Thus argued the father; but the mother had spent her girlhood amidst theclamour of the Buonapartist campaigns, and the thought of war was veryterrible to her. The memory of the retreat from Russia was not yet twentyyears old. There were men alive to tell the story, to depict those daysand nights of horror, that mighty march of death. It was she and herdaughter Cydalise who had helped to persuade Gustave that he was born todistinguish himself in the law. They wanted him to study in Paris—theyoung man himself had a wild desire to enjoy the delights of thatwondrous capital—and to return in a few years to set up for himself as avocat at the town of Vevinord, some half-dozen leagues from thepatrimonial estate. He was created to plead for the innocent, to denouncethe guilty, to be grand and brave and fiery-hot with enthusiasm indefence of virtuous peasants charged unjustly with the stealing of sheep,or firing of corn-ricks. It never struck these simple souls that he mightsometimes be called upon to defend the guilty, or to denounce theinnocent.
It was all settled at last. Gustave was to go to Paris, and enter himselfas a student of law. There were plenty of boarding-houses in theneighbourhood of the Ecole de Droit where a young man might find a home;and to one of these Gustave was recommended by a friend of his family. Itwas the Pension Magnotte to which they had sent him, the big drearyhouse, en