A Matter of Millions

Anna Katharine Green

Description

First published in 1890, "A Matter of Millions" is a detective novel written by American novelist Anna Katharine Green. The story revolves around a dying man who, having no living relatives, leaves his fortune to someone who resembles the woman whom he loved. The sixth book in Green's detective series featuring Mr. Gryce, "A Matter of Millions" is a riveting tale of mystery and intrigue not to be missed by fans of classic detective fiction. Anna Katharine Green (1846–1935) was an American novelist and poet. Among the first writers of detective fiction in America, she is considered to be the “mother” of the genre for her legally-accurate and well-thought-out plots. Other notable works by this author include: “The Leavenworth Case” (1878), “A Strange Disappearance” (1880), and “The Circular Study” (1900). Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this vintage detective novel now in a brand new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 09 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528791847
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A MATTER OF MILLIONS
By
ANNA KATHARINE GREEN

First published in 1890



Copyright © 2020 Read & Co. Classics
This edition is published by Read & Co. Classics, an imprint of Read & Co.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Read & Co. is part of Read Books Ltd. For more information visit www.readandcobooks.co.uk


Contents
Anna Kat harine Green
CHAPTER 1
THE LETTER
CHAPTER 2
A REMARKAB LE ADVENTURE
CHAPTER 3
THE END OF A GR EAT AMBITION
CHAPTER 4
THE STORY OF A STRA NGE GIRLHOOD
CHAPTER 5
AN IMPORT UNATE SUITOR
CHAPTER 6
A SURPRISE
CHAPTER 7
A GREAT DAY AT POLICE HEADQUARTERS
CHAPTER 8
THE JENNY RO GERS MYSTERY
CHAPTER 9
HORACE BYRD
CHAPTER 10
MISS ROGER S OF DETROIT
CHAPTER 11
MISS ROGERS OF NEW YORK
CHAPTER 12
MADAME’S LITTLE DOOR
CHAPTER 13
A CHARGE THAT WOULD SH AKE MOST MEN
CHAPTER 14
MASTER OF T HE SITUATION
CHAPTER 15
FRIENDS
CHAPTER 16
A STARTLING INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 17
THE FIRS T STEP TAKEN
CHAPTER 18
FACE TO FACE
CHAPTER 19
SOMETHING MORE THAN A GAM E OF CROQUET
CHAPTER 20
FORW ARD AND BACK
CHAPTER 21
THREATS AN D ENTREATIES
CHAPTER 22
FARTHER I NTO THE MAZE
CHAPTER 23
WELCOME AND UNWELCO ME INTRUDERS
CHAPTER 24
A FORTUNE AND A DEATH-BED
CHAPTER 25
THE SURPRISE S OF AN HOUR
CHAPTER 26
THE QUEST
CHAPTER 27
SECRE T PROTECTORS
CHAPTER 28
L A SONNAMBULA
CHAPTER 29
THE VALET
CHAPTER 30
A G REAT HEIRESS
CHAPTER 31
FINAL WORDS
CHAPTER 32
THE SEED IS SOWN
CHAPTER 33
UNEXPECTE D CONDITIONS
CHAPTER 34
NEW FEARS
CHAPTER 35
BEFORE T HE RECEPTION
CHAPTER 36
AT T HE RECEPTION
CHAPTER 37
A TURN OF THE WHEEL
CHAPTER 38
JEANNETTE AND VIRGINIA
CHAPTER 39
ANOTHER TURN OF THE WHEEL
CHAPTER 40
THE WHEEL BE COMES A RACK
CHAPTER 41
SE CRET ENEMIES
CHAPTER 42
T HE LAST HOPE
CHAPTER 43
FAT E TRIUMPHANT
CHAPTER 44
JENN Y’S MARRIAGE
CHAPTER 45
WHAT HE READ
CHAPTER 46
TOO LATE
CHAPTER 47
L OOSE THREADS


Anna Katharine Green
Anna Katharine Green was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA in 1846. She aspired to be a writer from a young age, and corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson during her late teens. When her poetry failed to gain recognition, Green produced her first and best-known novel, The Leavenworth Case (1878). Praised by Wilkie Collins, the novel was year's bestseller, establishing Green's reputation.
Green went on to publish around forty books, including A Strange Disappearance (1880), Hand and Ring (1883), The Mill Mystery (1886), Behind Closed Doors (1888), Forsaken Inn (1890), Marked "Personal" (1893), Miss Hurd: An Enigma (1894), The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock (1895), The Affair Next Door (1897), Lost Man's Lane (1898), Agatha Webb (1899), The Circular Study (1900), The Filigree Ball (1903), The House in the Mist (1905), The Millionaire Baby (1905), The Woman in the Alcove (1906), The Sword of Damocles (1909), The House of the Whispering Pines (1910), Initials Only (1911), Dark Hollow (1914), The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow (1917), The Step on the S tair (1923).
Green wrote at a time when fiction, and especially crime fiction, was dominated by men. However, she is now credited with shaping detective fiction into its classic form, and developing the trope of the recurring detective. Her main character was detective Ebenezer Gryce of the New York Metropolitan Police Force. In three novels, he is assisted by the spinster Amelia Butterworth – the prototype for Miss Marple, Miss Silver and other literary creations. Green also invented the 'girl detective' with the character of Violet Strange, a debutante with a secret life as a sleuth. She died in 1935 in Buffalo, New Yo rk, aged 88.



A MATTER OF MILLIONS
CHAPTER 1
THE LETTER
An old crone stood on the top floor of one of New York’s studio buildings. In her hand was a letter. Looking at it, she studied the superscription carefully, and then, with the same intentness, read the name on one of the doors before her. Hamilton Degraw was on the one, Hamilton Degraw was on the other. Satisfied, she gave a quick glance around her, thrust the letter under the door, and q uickly fled.
Within, the young artist answering to this name sat alone, gazing at a nearly completed picture on his easel. He was not painting, only musing, and at the sound of the departing step, which had been too hurried to be noiseless, he looked around and saw the letter. Rising, he picked it up, gave it a quick glance, and opened it. The contents were astonishing.
“Will Mr. Degraw,” so it read, “please accept the inclosed, and in repayment, bring paper and pencil to 391 East street this evening at eight o’clock? A simple sketch is all that is required of him at this time. Afterward, a finished picture may be ordered. When he sees the subject of the sketch, he will realize why so peculiar an hour has been chosen, and why we request promptness and exactitude.
“If Mr. Degraw cannot come, will he send an immediate message to t hat effect?”
The inclosed was a bank-note of no mean value, and the name signed to the note was, as clearly as he could make out, “ Andre a Montelli. ”
“Curious!” came from the young man’s lips as he finished the epistle and unfolded the bank-note. “Somewhat peremptory in its demand, but interesting, perhaps, for that very reason. Shall I pursue the adventure? The amount of this money surely makes it worth my while , and then—”
He did not finish the sentence aloud, but his look showed that he was in one of those moods when the prospect of a new or unusual experience possessed a special attraction.
“Eight o’clock!” he repeated after a few minutes, “I wish the note had said six.” And sighing lightly, he went back to the picture on the easel. As he stands surveying it, let us survey him. Though a dissatisfied expression rests upon his countenance (he evidently is not pleased with his day’s work), there is that in his face which irresistibly attracts the eye, and if you look long enough, the heart, so fine are his traits and so full of sympathy his glance and smile. Handsome without doubt, as a man and artist should be, he has that deeper charm which not only awakens the interest but sways the emotions, and which, when added to such perfection of features as distinguishes his face, makes a man a marked figure for good or evil according as the heart behind that charm is actuated by love of self or a generous consideration for others.
By which is the heart of this man moved? We will let his future actions tell, only premising that the bird which sings in one window of his studio and the flower which blows in another, argue that he at least possesses gentle tastes, while the array of swords and guns that gleam on a crimson background above the mantel-piece, betray that the more masculine traits are not absent from his character. Strong, winsome and enthusiastic he appears to us, and such we will take him to be, till events prove us short-sighted, or enlarge mere prepossession in his favor into actual and positive regard. He is tall, and his hair and mustache are black, hi s eyes gray.
The picture upon which he is gazing is that of a young girl. Though he does not like it, we do, and wonder if his dissatisfaction arises from a failure to express his ideal or from some fault in the subject itself. It cannot be the latter, for never were sweeter features placed upon canvas or a more ideal head presented to the admiration of mankind. Shrined in a golden haze, it smiles upon you with an innocent allurement that ought to repay any artist for no matter how many days of labor or nights of restless dreams. But Hamilton Degraw is not satisfied. Let us see if we can discover the reason for this from the words just hovering on his lips.
“It is beautiful, it is a dream, but where shall I find the face I seek? I would make it a companion piece to this, and I would call the one ‘Dream’ and the other ‘Reality,’ and men would muse upon the ‘Dream,’ but love the ‘Reality.’ But where is there a reality to equal this dream? I shall nev er find it.”
At half-past seven (all this occurred in the month of May), Mr. Degraw left his studio and proceeded up-town with his paper and pencils.


CHAPTER 2
A REMARKABLE ADVENTURE
The number which had been given him was 391 East—street, and, though he had never been in just the locality indicated by this address, he thought he knew the region and what to expect there. Had he not passed through many of these uptown streets, even to the water’s edge, and found them to vary only in the size and pretention of their long and monotonous rows of similarly fashioned brick or stone houses, unless it were by the intrusion of a brewery or a church?
It was, therefore, an agreeable surprise to discover that the especial block in which he was for the moment interested, was not like other blocks, even in this quarter, but was broken up by a stretch of odd-looking houses, which, if somewhat worn and dilapidated