Compare commits
6 Commits
13d14abcd2
...
bd33aa9510
| Author | SHA1 | Date |
|---|---|---|
sloum
|
bd33aa9510 | |
|
sloum
|
f6ce455560 | |
|
sloum
|
fd3818aecd | |
|
sloum
|
689f380097 | |
|
sloum
|
b99d12affe | |
|
sloum
|
d35407f1c2 |
|
|
@ -1,195 +1,195 @@
|
|||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
||||
<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" dir="ltr" prefix="se: https://standardebooks.org/vocab/1.0" unique-identifier="uid" version="3.0" xml:lang="en-US">
|
||||
<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
|
||||
<dc:identifier id="uid">url:https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end</dc:identifier>
|
||||
<dc:date>1900-01-01T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
|
||||
<meta property="dcterms:modified">1900-01-01T00:00:00Z</meta>
|
||||
<dc:rights>The source text and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. They may still be copyrighted in other countries, so users located outside of the United States must check their local laws before using this ebook. The creators of, and contributors to, this ebook dedicate their contributions to the worldwide public domain via the terms in the [CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).</dc:rights>
|
||||
<dc:publisher id="publisher">Standard Ebooks</dc:publisher>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#publisher">Standard Ebooks</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.homepage" refines="#publisher">https://standardebooks.org</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#publisher" scheme="marc:relators">bkd</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#publisher" scheme="marc:relators">mdc</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#publisher" scheme="marc:relators">pbl</meta>
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="type-designer">The League of Moveable Type</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#type-designer">League of Moveable Type, The</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.homepage" refines="#type-designer">https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#type-designer" scheme="marc:relators">tyd</meta>
|
||||
<link href="http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/accessibility-20170105.html#wcag-aa" rel="dcterms:conformsTo"/>
|
||||
<meta property="a11y:certifiedBy">Standard Ebooks</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessMode">textual</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessModeSufficient">textual</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">readingOrder</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">structuralNavigation</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">tableOfContents</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">unlocked</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityHazard">none</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilitySummary">This publication conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA.</meta>
|
||||
<link href="onix.xml" media-type="application/xml" properties="onix" rel="record"/>
|
||||
<dc:title id="title">World’s End</dc:title>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#title">World’s End</meta>
|
||||
<dc:subject id="subject-1">Inheritance and succession -- Fiction</dc:subject>
|
||||
<meta property="authority" refines="#subject-1">LCSH</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="term" refines="#subject-1">sh2008104235</meta>
|
||||
<dc:subject id="subject-2">England -- Fiction</dc:subject>
|
||||
<meta property="authority" refines="#subject-2">LCSH</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="term" refines="#subject-2">Unknown</meta>
|
||||
<dc:subject id="subject-3">Murder -- Fiction</dc:subject>
|
||||
<meta property="authority" refines="#subject-3">LCSH</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="term" refines="#subject-3">sh2008107179</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:subject">Fiction</meta>
|
||||
<dc:description id="description">The great city of Stirmingham is built and owned by a single individual. Upon his death, claimants vie to inherit control of his vast wealth, while a young couple are caught in the middle.</dc:description>
|
||||
<meta id="long-description" property="se:long-description" refines="#description">
|
||||
<p><i>World’s End</i> is the third book released by <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies">Richard Jefferies</a>. It was incrementally more successful than his previous two novels. He had not yet settled into the nature focused style that would come to define his later works. However, contemporary critics noted his improved plotting and more believable character motives.</p>
|
||||
<p>The novel was original released in three separate books. The first book chronicles a murder that sets the later action in motion, as well as documenting the two families that led to the creation of the great city of Stirmingham. The second book sees a romance blossom, a second murder, and lots of intrigue as descendants of the characters from the first book vie to inherit the city of Stirmingham, and the great wealth and power that comes with that inheritance. The third book sets to solving the two murders and seeing through all of the action set up in the previous books.</p>
|
||||
</meta>
|
||||
<dc:language>en-GB</dc:language>
|
||||
<dc:source>https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37079</dc:source>
|
||||
<!-- Book 1 -->
|
||||
<dc:source>https://archive.org/details/worldsendastory02jeffgoog</dc:source>
|
||||
<!-- Book 2 -->
|
||||
<dc:source>https://archive.org/details/worldsendastory05jeffgoog</dc:source>
|
||||
<!-- Book 3 -->
|
||||
<dc:source>https://archive.org/details/worldsendastory01jeffgoog</dc:source>
|
||||
<meta property="se:word-count">WORD_COUNT</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:reading-ease.flesch">READING_EASE</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.vcs.github">https://github.com/standardebooks/richard-jefferies_worlds-end</meta>
|
||||
<dc:creator id="author">Richard Jefferies</dc:creator>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#author">Jefferies, Richard</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:name.person.full-name" refines="#author">John Richard Jefferies</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.encyclopedia.wikipedia" refines="#author">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jefferies</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.authority.nacoaf" refines="#author">http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81125341</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#author" scheme="marc:relators">aut</meta>
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="artist">COVER_ARTIST</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#artist">COVER_ARTIST_SORT</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.encyclopedia.wikipedia" refines="#artist">COVER_ARTIST_WIKI_URL</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.authority.nacoaf" refines="#artist">COVER_ARTIST_NACOAF_URI</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#artist" scheme="marc:relators">art</meta>
|
||||
<!-- no transcriber is listed by Gutenberg, do I include this block? -->
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="transcriber-1">Anonymous</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#transcriber-1">Anonymous</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#transcriber-1" scheme="marc:relators">trc</meta>
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="producer-1">Brian Evans</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#producer-1">Evans, Brian</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.homepage" refines="#producer-1">https://sloum.colorfield.space</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">bkp</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">blw</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">cov</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">mrk</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">pfr</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">tyg</meta>
|
||||
</metadata>
|
||||
<manifest>
|
||||
<item href="css/core.css" id="core.css" media-type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<item href="css/local.css" id="local.css" media-type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<item href="css/se.css" id="se.css" media-type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<item href="images/cover.svg" id="cover.svg" media-type="image/svg+xml" properties="cover-image"/>
|
||||
<item href="images/logo.svg" id="logo.svg" media-type="image/svg+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="images/titlepage.svg" id="titlepage.svg" media-type="image/svg+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/book-1.xhtml" id="book-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/book-2.xhtml" id="book-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/book-3.xhtml" id="book-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-1.xhtml" id="chapter-1-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-2.xhtml" id="chapter-1-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-3.xhtml" id="chapter-1-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-4.xhtml" id="chapter-1-4.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-5.xhtml" id="chapter-1-5.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-6.xhtml" id="chapter-1-6.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-7.xhtml" id="chapter-1-7.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-8.xhtml" id="chapter-1-8.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-9.xhtml" id="chapter-1-9.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-10.xhtml" id="chapter-1-10.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-11.xhtml" id="chapter-1-11.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-12.xhtml" id="chapter-1-12.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-13.xhtml" id="chapter-1-13.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-14.xhtml" id="chapter-1-14.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-15.xhtml" id="chapter-1-15.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-1.xhtml" id="chapter-2-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-2.xhtml" id="chapter-2-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-3.xhtml" id="chapter-2-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-4.xhtml" id="chapter-2-4.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-5.xhtml" id="chapter-2-5.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-6.xhtml" id="chapter-2-6.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-7.xhtml" id="chapter-2-7.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-8.xhtml" id="chapter-2-8.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-9.xhtml" id="chapter-2-9.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-10.xhtml" id="chapter-2-10.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-11.xhtml" id="chapter-2-11.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-12.xhtml" id="chapter-2-12.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-13.xhtml" id="chapter-2-13.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-14.xhtml" id="chapter-2-14.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-15.xhtml" id="chapter-2-15.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-1.xhtml" id="chapter-3-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-2.xhtml" id="chapter-3-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-3.xhtml" id="chapter-3-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-4.xhtml" id="chapter-3-4.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-5.xhtml" id="chapter-3-5.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-6.xhtml" id="chapter-3-6.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-7.xhtml" id="chapter-3-7.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-8.xhtml" id="chapter-3-8.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-9.xhtml" id="chapter-3-9.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-10.xhtml" id="chapter-3-10.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-11.xhtml" id="chapter-3-11.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-12.xhtml" id="chapter-3-12.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-13.xhtml" id="chapter-3-13.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-14.xhtml" id="chapter-3-14.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/colophon.xhtml" id="colophon.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="svg"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/imprint.xhtml" id="imprint.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="svg"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/titlepage.xhtml" id="titlepage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="svg"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/uncopyright.xhtml" id="uncopyright.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="toc.xhtml" id="toc.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="nav"/>
|
||||
</manifest>
|
||||
<spine>
|
||||
<itemref idref="titlepage.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="imprint.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="book-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-4.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-5.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-6.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-7.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-8.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-9.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-10.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-11.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-12.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-13.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-14.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-15.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="book-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-4.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-5.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-6.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-7.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-8.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-9.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-10.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-11.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-12.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-13.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-14.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-15.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="book-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-4.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-5.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-6.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-7.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-8.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-9.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-10.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-11.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-12.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-13.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-14.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="colophon.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="uncopyright.xhtml"/>
|
||||
</spine>
|
||||
<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
|
||||
<dc:identifier id="uid">url:https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end</dc:identifier>
|
||||
<dc:date>1900-01-01T00:00:00Z</dc:date>
|
||||
<meta property="dcterms:modified">1900-01-01T00:00:00Z</meta>
|
||||
<dc:rights>The source text and artwork in this ebook are believed to be in the United States public domain; that is, they are believed to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. They may still be copyrighted in other countries, so users located outside of the United States must check their local laws before using this ebook. The creators of, and contributors to, this ebook dedicate their contributions to the worldwide public domain via the terms in the [CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).</dc:rights>
|
||||
<dc:publisher id="publisher">Standard Ebooks</dc:publisher>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#publisher">Standard Ebooks</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.homepage" refines="#publisher">https://standardebooks.org</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#publisher" scheme="marc:relators">bkd</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#publisher" scheme="marc:relators">mdc</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#publisher" scheme="marc:relators">pbl</meta>
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="type-designer">The League of Moveable Type</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#type-designer">League of Moveable Type, The</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.homepage" refines="#type-designer">https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#type-designer" scheme="marc:relators">tyd</meta>
|
||||
<link href="http://www.idpf.org/epub/a11y/accessibility-20170105.html#wcag-aa" rel="dcterms:conformsTo"/>
|
||||
<meta property="a11y:certifiedBy">Standard Ebooks</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessMode">textual</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessModeSufficient">textual</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">readingOrder</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">structuralNavigation</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">tableOfContents</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">unlocked</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilityHazard">none</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="schema:accessibilitySummary">This publication conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA.</meta>
|
||||
<link href="onix.xml" media-type="application/xml" properties="onix" rel="record"/>
|
||||
<dc:title id="title">World’s End</dc:title>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#title">World’s End</meta>
|
||||
<dc:subject id="subject-1">Inheritance and succession -- Fiction</dc:subject>
|
||||
<meta property="authority" refines="#subject-1">LCSH</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="term" refines="#subject-1">sh2008104235</meta>
|
||||
<dc:subject id="subject-2">England -- Fiction</dc:subject>
|
||||
<meta property="authority" refines="#subject-2">LCSH</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="term" refines="#subject-2">Unknown</meta>
|
||||
<dc:subject id="subject-3">Murder -- Fiction</dc:subject>
|
||||
<meta property="authority" refines="#subject-3">LCSH</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="term" refines="#subject-3">sh2008107179</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:subject">Fiction</meta>
|
||||
<dc:description id="description">When the creator of the great city of Stirmingham dies claimants vie to inherit control of his vast wealth, ensnaring two young lovers in a deadly plot.</dc:description>
|
||||
<meta id="long-description" property="se:long-description" refines="#description">
|
||||
<p><i>World’s End</i> is the third book released by <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies">Richard Jefferies</a>. It was incrementally more successful than his previous two novels. He had not yet settled into the nature focused style that would come to define his later works. However, contemporary critics noted his improved plotting and more believable character motives.</p>
|
||||
<p>The novel documents the rise of a great city, the enormous wealth of its founder, and a plot to acquire the founders estate by any means necessary. Caught up in the middle are Aymer and Violet, two young lovers engaged to be married.</p>
|
||||
</meta>
|
||||
<dc:language>en-GB</dc:language>
|
||||
<dc:source>https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37079</dc:source>
|
||||
<!-- Book 1 -->
|
||||
<dc:source>https://archive.org/details/worldsendastory02jeffgoog</dc:source>
|
||||
<!-- Book 2 -->
|
||||
<dc:source>https://archive.org/details/worldsendastory05jeffgoog</dc:source>
|
||||
<!-- Book 3 -->
|
||||
<dc:source>https://archive.org/details/worldsendastory01jeffgoog</dc:source>
|
||||
<meta property="se:word-count">WORD_COUNT</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:reading-ease.flesch">READING_EASE</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.vcs.github">https://github.com/standardebooks/richard-jefferies_worlds-end</meta>
|
||||
<dc:creator id="author">Richard Jefferies</dc:creator>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#author">Jefferies, Richard</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:name.person.full-name" refines="#author">John Richard Jefferies</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.encyclopedia.wikipedia" refines="#author">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jefferies</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.authority.nacoaf" refines="#author">http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n81125341</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#author" scheme="marc:relators">aut</meta>
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="artist">COVER_ARTIST</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#artist">COVER_ARTIST_SORT</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.encyclopedia.wikipedia" refines="#artist">COVER_ARTIST_WIKI_URL</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.authority.nacoaf" refines="#artist">COVER_ARTIST_NACOAF_URI</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#artist" scheme="marc:relators">art</meta>
|
||||
<!-- no transcriber is listed by Gutenberg, do I include this block? -->
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="transcriber-1">Anonymous</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#transcriber-1">Anonymous</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#transcriber-1" scheme="marc:relators">trc</meta>
|
||||
<dc:contributor id="producer-1">Brian Evans</dc:contributor>
|
||||
<meta property="file-as" refines="#producer-1">Evans, Brian</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:url.homepage" refines="#producer-1">https://sloum.colorfield.space</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">bkp</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">blw</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">cov</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">mrk</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">pfr</meta>
|
||||
<meta property="se:role" refines="#producer-1" scheme="marc:relators">tyg</meta>
|
||||
</metadata>
|
||||
<manifest>
|
||||
<item href="css/core.css" id="core.css" media-type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<item href="css/local.css" id="local.css" media-type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<item href="css/se.css" id="se.css" media-type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<item href="images/cover.svg" id="cover.svg" media-type="image/svg+xml" properties="cover-image"/>
|
||||
<item href="images/logo.svg" id="logo.svg" media-type="image/svg+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="images/titlepage.svg" id="titlepage.svg" media-type="image/svg+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/book-1.xhtml" id="book-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/book-2.xhtml" id="book-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/book-3.xhtml" id="book-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-1.xhtml" id="chapter-1-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-2.xhtml" id="chapter-1-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-3.xhtml" id="chapter-1-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-4.xhtml" id="chapter-1-4.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-5.xhtml" id="chapter-1-5.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-6.xhtml" id="chapter-1-6.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-7.xhtml" id="chapter-1-7.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-8.xhtml" id="chapter-1-8.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-9.xhtml" id="chapter-1-9.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-10.xhtml" id="chapter-1-10.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-11.xhtml" id="chapter-1-11.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-12.xhtml" id="chapter-1-12.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-13.xhtml" id="chapter-1-13.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-14.xhtml" id="chapter-1-14.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-1-15.xhtml" id="chapter-1-15.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-1.xhtml" id="chapter-2-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-2.xhtml" id="chapter-2-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-3.xhtml" id="chapter-2-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-4.xhtml" id="chapter-2-4.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-5.xhtml" id="chapter-2-5.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-6.xhtml" id="chapter-2-6.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-7.xhtml" id="chapter-2-7.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-8.xhtml" id="chapter-2-8.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-9.xhtml" id="chapter-2-9.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-10.xhtml" id="chapter-2-10.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-11.xhtml" id="chapter-2-11.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-12.xhtml" id="chapter-2-12.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-13.xhtml" id="chapter-2-13.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-14.xhtml" id="chapter-2-14.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-2-15.xhtml" id="chapter-2-15.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-1.xhtml" id="chapter-3-1.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-2.xhtml" id="chapter-3-2.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-3.xhtml" id="chapter-3-3.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-4.xhtml" id="chapter-3-4.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-5.xhtml" id="chapter-3-5.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-6.xhtml" id="chapter-3-6.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-7.xhtml" id="chapter-3-7.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-8.xhtml" id="chapter-3-8.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-9.xhtml" id="chapter-3-9.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-10.xhtml" id="chapter-3-10.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-11.xhtml" id="chapter-3-11.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-12.xhtml" id="chapter-3-12.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-13.xhtml" id="chapter-3-13.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/chapter-3-14.xhtml" id="chapter-3-14.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/colophon.xhtml" id="colophon.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="svg"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/imprint.xhtml" id="imprint.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="svg"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/titlepage.xhtml" id="titlepage.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="svg"/>
|
||||
<item href="text/uncopyright.xhtml" id="uncopyright.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
|
||||
<item href="toc.xhtml" id="toc.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml" properties="nav"/>
|
||||
</manifest>
|
||||
<spine>
|
||||
<itemref idref="titlepage.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="imprint.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="book-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-4.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-5.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-6.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-7.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-8.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-9.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-10.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-11.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-12.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-13.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-14.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-1-15.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="book-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-4.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-5.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-6.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-7.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-8.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-9.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-10.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-11.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-12.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-13.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-14.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-2-15.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="book-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-1.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-2.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-3.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-4.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-5.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-6.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-7.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-8.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-9.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-10.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-11.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-12.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-13.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="chapter-3-14.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="colophon.xhtml"/>
|
||||
<itemref idref="uncopyright.xhtml"/>
|
||||
</spine>
|
||||
</package>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -7,9 +7,6 @@
|
|||
text-indent: 0;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
/* [epub|type~="z3998:poem"] p + p{
|
||||
margin-top: 1em;
|
||||
} */
|
||||
[epub|type~="z3998:poem"] p > span,
|
||||
[epub|type~="z3998:song"] p > span{
|
||||
display: block;
|
||||
|
|
@ -58,7 +55,6 @@ footer{
|
|||
text-align: right;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
/* [epub|type~="z3998:salutation"] + p, */
|
||||
[epub|type~="z3998:letter"] header + p{
|
||||
text-indent: 0;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
|
|||
<p>When young John Marese Baskette, the heir, after distinguishing himself at Eton, was sent higher up the Thames to Oxford, Aurelian immediately placed his son, Theodore Marese, at the same college.</p>
|
||||
<p>The result was exactly as he had foreseen. The heir formed a bond of friendship—such as it is in these days—with Theodore. Their one topic of conversation was the estate.</p>
|
||||
<p>John was full of the most romantic notions. He was in youth a really exemplary lad—clever, hardworking, winning to himself the good will of all men. Theodore had a genuine liking for his cousin—then, at all events, though probably in after life the attachment he professed was chiefly caused by self interest.</p>
|
||||
<p>John was full of ambitious dreams. His vivid imagination had been worked upon by the talk among his companions about the famous owner of twenty millions sterling—his father. Upon an old bookstall he obtained a copy of “The Life of Sternhold Baskette,” now out of print. It inflamed him to the uttermost. There was good metal in the boy if he had only had friends and parents to put it to proper use. He formed the most extraordinary schemes as to what he would do with this wealth when he became of age, and stepped at one bound into the full enjoyment of it, as he supposed he should.</p>
|
||||
<p>John was full of ambitious dreams. His vivid imagination had been worked upon by the talk among his companions about the famous owner of twenty millions sterling—his father. Upon an old bookstall he obtained a copy of <i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">The Life of Sternhold Baskette</i>, now out of print. It inflamed him to the uttermost. There was good metal in the boy if he had only had friends and parents to put it to proper use. He formed the most extraordinary schemes as to what he would do with this wealth when he became of age, and stepped at one bound into the full enjoyment of it, as he supposed he should.</p>
|
||||
<p>It was all to be used for the alleviation of the misery of the world, for the relief of the poor, for the succouring of the afflicted, the advancement of all means that could mitigate the penalties attaching to human existence.</p>
|
||||
<p>As time wore on, however, these benevolent intentions received their first check.</p>
|
||||
<p>He reached his twenty-first birthday. He claimed his birthright, and was refused. Briefly, the reason was because the companies and the American claimants had entered pleas, and because also the property was terribly encumbered, and would require long years of nursing yet before it could be cleared, and this nursing the higher Courts insisted upon.</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
|
|||
</p>
|
||||
</blockquote>
|
||||
<p>Like his father Sternhold, he looked upon the undisputed possession of such an estate as conferring powers and position nothing inferior to that of a monarch. His dislike to all things American—in consequence of the claims, now more loudly proclaimed than ever, of the Baskettes from the States—grew to be almost a monomania. He wished that the United States people had but one neck, that he might destroy them all at once—applying the Roman emperor’s saying to his own affairs.</p>
|
||||
<p>His especially favourite study was “The Prince” of Machiavelli, which he always carried with him. His copy was annotated with a scheme for applying the instructions therein given to modern times—the outline of the original requiring much modification to suit the changes in the constitution of society. Some day he hoped to utilise the labours of the man whose name has become the familiar soubriquet of the Devil.</p>
|
||||
<p>His especially favourite study was <i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">The Prince</i> of Machiavelli, which he always carried with him. His copy was annotated with a scheme for applying the instructions therein given to modern times—the outline of the original requiring much modification to suit the changes in the constitution of society. Some day he hoped to utilise the labours of the man whose name has become the familiar soubriquet of the Devil.</p>
|
||||
<p>Theodore, whom Aurelian had made qualify as a surgeon, was imbued with an inherited taste for recondite research. He would return from a wild scene of debauchery at early dawn, and drawing the curtains and lighting his lamp to exclude daylight, plunge into the devious paths of forbidden science. Keen and shrewd as he was, he did not disdain even alchemy, bringing to the crude ideas of the ancients all the knowledge of the moderns. Cruel by nature, he excelled in the manipulation of the dissecting knife, and in the cities upon the Continent where their wanderings led them, lost no opportunity of practising with the resident medical men, or of studying those wonderful museums which are concealed in certain places abroad. Marese was the fiery charger, ready to dash at every obstacle Theodore was the charioteer—the head which guided and suggested. Yet all their concentrated thought could not devise a method by which Marese might obtain the full enjoyment of his estate. Briefly, this was the condition of Marese’s mind and his position, when the death of Aurelian took place, and a letter reached them written by him in his last hours, entreating their return to Stirmingham for reasons connected with the estate. They went, and a woman went with them as far as London—a woman whom we must meet hereafter, but who shall be avoided as much as possible.</p>
|
||||
<p>They arrived at Stirmingham unannounced, and examined the papers which the deceased had particularly recommended to their study. Aurelian, as has been said, was baffled but not beaten. The fascination of the vast estate held his mind, as it held so many others, in an iron vice. The whole of his life was devoted to it. He had searched and searched back into the past, groping from point to point, and he had accumulated such a mass of evidence as had never been suspected.</p>
|
||||
<p>He knew far more even than poor Sternhold, who had occupied himself exclusively with the future.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
|
|||
<p>The upshot was that another Act of Parliament was obtained by the influence of the said powerful railway company, authorising this line, station, and agreement. It was now argued that this Act and agreement would override the original building leases; especially as the railway company were prepared to prove that they had not yet reaped any reasonable benefit, and, unless the leases were extended, would be serious losers. As they had immense interest in the House, they were likely enough to gain their point. Here were two more Gordian knots, Numbers 4 and 5!</p>
|
||||
<p>Then there was the list of claimants to the estate, which had now been swelled from all parts of the world, and the series of suits and pleas, and Heaven knows what other litigation threatened by them, making Gordian knot Number 6. Finally, the estate was in Chancery. Knot Number 7.</p>
|
||||
<p>Here was a pleasant prospect for the heir! To put all the rest on one side, on the day that the building leases expired, and he stepped forward to claim his rights, the building societies would present him with the following neat little bill:—</p>
|
||||
<p>Societies 1, 2, 3, 4:—</p>
|
||||
<p>Societies 1, 2, 3, 4:—</p>
|
||||
<table>
|
||||
<tbody>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
|
|
@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
|
|||
<td>£123,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
<td>To Interest on same at 4 per cent</td>
|
||||
<td>To Interest on same at 4 percent</td>
|
||||
<td>50,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
|
|
@ -53,15 +53,15 @@
|
|||
<td>240,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
<td>To Interest on same at 3 per cent</td>
|
||||
<td>To Interest on same at 3 percent</td>
|
||||
<td>38,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
<td>To Private Loans on Bills [to Sternhold Baskette] at 5 per cent</td>
|
||||
<td>To Private Loans on Bills [to Sternhold Baskette] at 5 percent</td>
|
||||
<td>20,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
<td>To Interest on same at 5 per cent</td>
|
||||
<td>To Interest on same at 5 percent</td>
|
||||
<td>3,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
</tbody>
|
||||
|
|
@ -72,11 +72,11 @@
|
|||
</tr>
|
||||
</tfoot>
|
||||
</table>
|
||||
<p>Societies 5, 6, 7, 8:—</p>
|
||||
<p>Societies 5, 6, 7, 8:—</p>
|
||||
<table>
|
||||
<tbody>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
<td>To Private Loans on Bills [to Marese Baskette] at 8 and 10 per cent</td>
|
||||
<td>To Private Loans on Bills [to Marese Baskette] at 8 and 10 percent</td>
|
||||
<td>£65,000</td>
|
||||
</tr>
|
||||
<tr>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
|
|||
<p>In addition, there was another host of people who made a virtue of proclaiming that they were not named Baskette. They did not profess to be named Baskette—they did not take a name which was not theirs! They were Washingtons, Curries, Bolters, Gregorys, Jamesons, and so on. But they had claims because their father’s wives were of the Baskette blood.</p>
|
||||
<p>Finally, there was another subdivision who loudly maintained that half of the original cotters who landed in New York were not Baskettes, but Gibbs, Webbes, Colborns, and so on, and that they were the descendants of these people. And there were some who went the length of declaring that they were descended from two alleged illegitimate sons of old Romy Baskette!</p>
|
||||
<p>The Baskette Battalion was therefore made up of—1st. The Pure Blood Baskettes; 2nd. The True Swampers; 3rd. Demi-Baskettes, who had that name added to another; 4th. Nominal Baskettes, whose names had an accidental resemblance; 5th. The Feminine Baskettes, descended from women of Baskette strain; 6th. Independent Squatters, not Baskettes, but companions; 7th. Illegitimate Baskettes!</p>
|
||||
<p>Then there were the Sibbolds—such a catalogue! These had been slower to wake up to their “rights” than the Baskettes, but when they did discover them they came in crowds. First, there were the descendants, in a straight line, of the eight sons of James Sibbold, shipped (six with families) to New York. They had multiplied exceedingly, and there was no end to them. The simply Sibbolds, as we may call them, numbered no less than two hundred and eighteen, all told—men, women, and children. Every one of these had some register, some old book—many of these books were worm-eaten copies of Tom Paine’s “Rights of Man”—some piece of paper or other to prove that they had the blood of James Sibbold in their veins.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then there were the Sibbolds—such a catalogue! These had been slower to wake up to their “rights” than the Baskettes, but when they did discover them they came in crowds. First, there were the descendants, in a straight line, of the eight sons of James Sibbold, shipped (six with families) to New York. They had multiplied exceedingly, and there was no end to them. The simply Sibbolds, as we may call them, numbered no less than two hundred and eighteen, all told—men, women, and children. Every one of these had some register, some old book—many of these books were worm-eaten copies of Tom Paine’s <i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">Rights of Man</i>—some piece of paper or other to prove that they had the blood of James Sibbold in their veins.</p>
|
||||
<p>Then there were all the ramifications, pretty much like the Baskette branches; innumerable cadets distantly related, innumerable people whose wife’s uncle’s mother or cousin’s name was Sibbold; and all the various Sibbolde, Sibboldes, Sibald, Sigbeld, Sybels, Sibils, Sibelus, Sibilsons, ad libitum. Illegitimate Sibbolds were as plentiful as blackberries, and all ready to argue the merits of the case with revolver and bowie. If the Baskettes made up a battalion, the Sibbolds formed an army!</p>
|
||||
<p>Between these two great divisions there was the bitterest enmity. The Baskettes derided the claims of the Sibbolds; the Sibbolds derided those of the Baskettes. The Sibbolds told the Baskettes that they were an ill-conditioned lot; if they had been respectable people, and really his relations, old Sternhold would never have shipped them to America out of his sight. The Baskettes retorted that the Sibbolds were ashamed to stay in England, for they were the sons of a murderer; they were the descendants of a dastardly coward, who shot a man through a window. The Sibbolds snarled, and pointed out that the great chief of the Baskettes was nothing but a thief, caught in the act and deservedly punished; a lot of semi-gypsies, rogues, and vagabonds. Their very name showed that they were but basket-makers; they were not even pure gypsy blood—miserable squatters on another man’s property.</p>
|
||||
<p>Blows were not unfrequently exchanged in the saloons and drinking-stores over these quarrels. The result was the formation of two distinct societies, each determined to prosecute its own claim and to oust the other at all hazards. The Baskette battalion relied upon the admitted nonpayment of rent by their forefathers to upset all subsequent agreements, and they agreed also that this agreement which their forefathers had signed was not binding on the remote descendants. The document was obtained by trickery, and the land was not put to the use the vendors had understood it was to be put, as the representatives now alleged, to simple agricultural purposes. Further, each of those who signed the document only gave up his cottage and the small plot of garden round it; they did not sell the waste land between the islands.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,9 +14,9 @@
|
|||
<p>“A search through the steamer revealed a cargo of the dead. Passengers lay at the doors of their berths, some half-dressed; and five or six were discovered in their berths, having evidently died while asleep. The engineer lay on the floor of the engine-room with three assistants—stiff, and with features grimly distorted. They had apparently suffered more than the rest.</p>
|
||||
<p>“The crew were found in various places. The captain lay near the engine-room, as if he had been on his way to consult with the engineer when death overtook him. Bodies were found all over the ship, and exclamations constantly arose as the men discovered fresh corpses. The air between decks was close and confined, and there was a fetid odour which they supposed to arise from the bodies, and which forced them sometimes to run on deck to breathe. This odour caused many of the sailors to vomit, and one or two were really ill for a time.</p>
|
||||
<p>“It appeared that the whole ship’s crew and all the passengers had perished; but one of the sailors searching about found a man in the wheelhouse on deck, who on being lifted up showed some slight trace of life. The sailors crowded round, and the excitement was intense. <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Theodore, who is a physician by profession, lent the aid of his skill, and after a while the man began to come round, though unable to speak.</p>
|
||||
<p>“The captain of the yacht had now come on board, and a consultation was held, at which it was decided to run back to New York. But as the wind was strong and the sea high, and the hawsers strained a good deal, it was arranged to put a part of the crew of the yacht on board the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>, to get up steam in her boilers, and shape a course for the States. To this the crew of the yacht strongly objected—they came aft in a body and respectfully begged not to be asked to stay on board the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>. They dreaded a similar fate to that which befel the crew and passengers of that unfortunate steamer.</p>
|
||||
<p>“The captain of the yacht had now come on board, and a consultation was held, at which it was decided to run back to New York. But as the wind was strong and the sea high, and the hawsers strained a good deal, it was arranged to put a part of the crew of the yacht on board the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>, to get up steam in her boilers, and shape a course for the States. To this the crew of the yacht strongly objected—they came aft in a body and respectfully begged not to be asked to stay on board the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>. They dreaded a similar fate to that which befell the crew and passengers of that unfortunate steamer.</p>
|
||||
<p>“The end of it was that <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Theodore ordered the hawsers to be kept attached, and the yacht was to partly tow the steamer and she was to partly steam ahead herself—the steam was to be got up, and the engines driven at half speed. This would ease the hawsers and the yacht, and at the same time the crew on board the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i> would be in communication with the yacht, and able to convey their wishes at once.</p>
|
||||
<p>“All agreed to this. Steam was easily got up, and the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>’s boilers and her engines were soon working, for the machinery was found to be in perfect order. By the time that this arrangement was perfected, and the ships were got well under weigh, the short day was nearly over, and with the night came anew the superstitions of the sailors. They murmured, and demurred to working a ship with a whole cargo of dead bodies. They would not move even across the deck alone, and as to going below it required them at once to face the mystery.</p>
|
||||
<p>“All agreed to this. Steam was easily got up, and the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>’s boilers and her engines were soon working, for the machinery was found to be in perfect order. By the time that this arrangement was perfected, and the ships were got well underway, the short day was nearly over, and with the night came anew the superstitions of the sailors. They murmured, and demurred to working a ship with a whole cargo of dead bodies. They would not move even across the deck alone, and as to going below it required them at once to face the mystery.</p>
|
||||
<p>“After an hour or so a clamour arose to pitch the dead overboard. What on earth was the use of keeping them? An abominable stench came up from between decks, and many of them could barely stand it. <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Theodore and the captain begged them to be calm, but it was in vain. They rose en masse, and in a short space of time every one of these dead bodies had been heaved overboard.</p>
|
||||
<p>“The gale had moderated, and the splash of each corpse as it fell into the water could be distinctly heard on board the yacht ahead. Such conduct cannot be too much deplored, and there was a talk of prosecuting the men for mutiny; but, on the other hand, there appears to be some excuse in the extraordinary and unprecedented horrors of the situation.</p>
|
||||
<p>“<abbr>Mr.</abbr> Theodore remained on board the <i epub:type="se:name.vessel.boat">Lucca</i>, doing all that science and patience could do for the sole survivor, who proved to be the third officer. Towards sunrise he rallied considerably, but <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Theodore never had any hopes, and advised the captain to take a note of his depositions, which was done.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
|
|||
<p>The method pursued in the sections was delightfully simple and gratifying to every member’s vanity. He was supplied with pen and ink, and told to put down all he could recollect about his family. The result was that in each section there were five or six people—and in some more—all busily at work, writing autobiographies; and as everybody considered himself of quite as much consequence as his neighbour, the bulk of these autobiographies can easily be imagined.</p>
|
||||
<p>If anyone had taken the trouble to wade through these personal histories, he would have been highly gratified with the fertility of the United States in breeding truly benevolent, upright, and distinguished men!</p>
|
||||
<p>Out of all that one hundred and fifty there was not one who did not merit the gratitude of his township at least, and some were fully worthy of the President’s chair at the White House. Their labours for the good of others were most carefully recorded—the subscriptions they had made to local charities far away on the other side of the Atlantic, to schoolhouses, and chapels, town-halls, and whatnot.</p>
|
||||
<p>“There,” ran many a proud record—“you will see my initials upon the cornerstone—‘<abbr epub:type="z3998:given-name">J. I. B.</abbr>,’ for ‘Jonathan Ithuriel Baskette,’ and the date (186—), which is in itself good evidence towards my case.”</p>
|
||||
<p>“There,” ran many a proud record—“you will see my initials upon the cornerstone—‘<abbr epub:type="z3998:given-name">J. I. B.</abbr>,’ for ‘Jonathan Ithuriel Baskette,’ and the date (186—), which is in itself good evidence towards my case.”</p>
|
||||
<p>All this mass of rubbish had to be sifted by the central committee, to be docketed, indexed, arranged, and a general analysis made of it.</p>
|
||||
<p>They worked for a while without a murmur, and suddenly collapsed. It was impossible to meet the flood of writing. Fancy one hundred and fifty people writing their autobiographies all at once, and each determined to do himself justice! Such a spectacle was never witnessed since the world began, and was worthy of the nineteenth century. The central committee flung up their hands in despair. A resource was presently found in the printing-press.</p>
|
||||
<p>When once the idea was started, the cry spread to all corners of the hall, and rose in a volume of sound to be echoed from the roof. The Press! The Spirit evoked by Faust which he could not control, nor any who have followed him.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -38,8 +38,8 @@
|
|||
<p>A strange man on horseback was seen riding up to The Place. This was so rare an event that Violet’s heart beat fast, fearing lest even at the eleventh hour something should happen to cause delay. She waited; her hands trembled. Even the delicious toilet had to be suspended.</p>
|
||||
<p>Footsteps came up the staircase, and then the maidservant, bearing in her hand a small parcel, advanced to Miss Waldron. With trembling fingers she cut the string—it was a delicate casket of mother-of-pearl. The key was in it; she opened the lid, and an involuntary exclamation of surprise and admiration burst from her lips.</p>
|
||||
<p>There lay the loveliest necklace of pearls that ever the sun had shone upon. Rich, costly pearls—pearls that were exactly fitted above all jewels for her—pearls that she had always wished for—pearls! They were round her neck in a moment.</p>
|
||||
<p>Miss Merton was in raptures; the maidservant lost her wits, and ran downstairs calling everyone to go up and see Miss Vi’<!-- is this right? --> let “in them shiners!”</p>
|
||||
<p>For a while, in the surprise and wonder, the donor had been forgotten. Under the necklace was a delicate pink note, offering Lady Lechester’s sincere desire that Miss Waldron would long wear her little present, and wishing her every good thing. When the wedding trip was over, would <abbr><em>Mrs.</em></abbr> Aymer Malet let her know that she might call?</p>
|
||||
<p>Miss Merton was in raptures; the maidservant lost her wits, and ran downstairs calling everyone to go up and see Miss Vi’let “in them shiners!”</p>
|
||||
<p>For a while, in the surprise and wonder, the donor had been forgotten. Under the necklace was a delicate pink note, offering Lady Lechester’s sincere desire that Miss Waldron would long wear her little present, and wishing her every good thing. When the wedding trip was over, would <abbr>Mrs.</abbr> Aymer Malet let her know that she might call?</p>
|
||||
<p>Violet was not perfect any more than other girls; she had naturally a vein of pride; she did feel no little elation at this auspicious mark of attention and regard from a person in Lady Lechester’s position. The rank of the donor added to the value of the gift.</p>
|
||||
<p><abbr>Mr.</abbr> Waldron was much affected by this token of esteem. He could not express his pleasure to the giver, because her messenger had galloped off the moment he had delivered the parcel. The importance of the bride, great enough before, immediately rose ninety percent, in the eyes of Miss Merton, and a hundred and fifty percent, in the eyes of the lower classes.</p>
|
||||
<p><abbr>Mr.</abbr> Waldron, examining the pearls with the eye of a connoisseur, valued them at the very lowest at two hundred guineas. The involuntary tears of the poor pilgrim at the shrine of art had indeed solidified into gems!</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
|
|||
<p>De Warren was deeply affected when Agnes calmly told him her view of the matter, admitted without reserve that she liked him—loved she could not say, though that was the truth—but added that marriage or further intercourse was impossible, so long as he remained unknown and unheard of among men.</p>
|
||||
<p>He kissed her hand, and swore to win distinction or to perish. He at once exchanged or volunteered—I forget which, but I think the latter—into a detachment going to China.</p>
|
||||
<p>When once Agnes had received a letter, which had travelled with its message of love and admiration over those thousands and thousands of miles of ocean, then she realised how she had cut herself off from her own darling; and her heart, before so cold and hard, softened, and was full of miserable forebodings. She lost much of her youthful beauty—the incessant anxiety that gnawed at her heart deprived her cheeks of their bloom, and her form of its graceful lines. She grew pale, even haggard, and people whispered that the heiress was fast going into a decline. Hours and hours she spent alone in the room of the old mansion where the parting had taken place. Sitting there in the Blue Room, as it was called, her mind filled with pictures of war and its dangers, her soul ever strung up to the highest pitch of anxious waiting, what wonder was it that Agnes began to see visions and to dream dreams—visions that she never mentioned, dreams that she never told. It would be easy to argue that what happened was a mere coincidence; that her fears had excited her mind; and that if the actual event had not lent a factitious importance to the affair, it would have passed as a mental delusion.</p>
|
||||
<p>Certain it was that in May, about ten months after De Warren’s departure, Agnes grew suddenly cheerful—the very opposite to what she had been. She sang and played, and danced about the old house. She said that something had told her that De Warren was coming home. No letter had reached her to that effect; the war was still going on, and yet she was perfectly certain that for some reason or other the cornet was returning—and, what was better, was returning covered with honours. Those in the house looked upon this sudden change of spirits and manner as a certain sign that something would happen to the heiress, and her faithful old nurse (dead before Violet’s advent) kept a close watch upon her.</p>
|
||||
<p>Certain it was that in May, about ten months after De Warren’s departure, Agnes grew suddenly cheerful—the very opposite to what she had been. She sang and played, and danced about the old house. She said that something had told her that De Warren was coming home. No letter had reached her to that effect; the war was still going on, and yet she was perfectly certain that for some reason or other the cornet was returning—and, what was better, was returning covered with honours. Those in the house looked upon this sudden change of spirits and manner as a certain sign that something would happen to the heiress, and her faithful old nurse (dead before Violet’s advent) kept a close watch upon her.</p>
|
||||
<p>One day, a curious thing happened. In the midst of lunch, Lady Agnes sprang up from table with a joyful but hysterical laugh, and declared that Walter was coming on horseback, and she must go and meet him. Quick as thought she had her hat on, and rushed out of the house, the nurse following at a little distance, anxious to see what would happen.</p>
|
||||
<p>Lady Agnes walked swiftly across the park to a little wicket-gate in the wall, where Warren used to meet her. Then she stopped and looked along the path, while the nurse hid behind the trunk of a beech tree at a short distance. In a few minutes Agnes cried out, “I hear him—I hear him; it is his footstep.” Then a minute afterwards she flung out her arms as if embracing someone, and cried, and seemed to kiss the air, uttering warm words of affection. The nurse saw nothing—only a light puff of wind stirred the leaves and caused a rustling.</p>
|
||||
<p>Agnes in a few moments turned to the right, and began to walk, or rather glide, as it seemed to the excited fancy of the nurse, at a swift pace, all the while talking as if to some person who accompanied her, and every now and then pausing to throw her arms round his neck, and uttering an hysterical sob. She made straight for “The Pot,” and went quickly round the oak stump. The nurse followed rapidly, and as she peeped round the oak there was Lady Agnes facing her on the other side of “The Pot,” with both arms extended and her face white as death. “Walter,” she said, distinctly; “Walter, what does that red spot on your forehead mean? Are you angry?” Then she fell prone on the grass in a dead faint, and the nurse had immense trouble to get her home again.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
|
|||
<p>One evening, after a more than ordinarily restless day had been spent, Agnes suddenly rose up, and retired to her private room. This was usually her custom before going out alone into the park, but on this occasion, Violet watching her, saw to her intense surprise that, instead of leaving the house, she unlocked a door which led into the old mansion, and entered the long deserted apartments of The Towers proper. Such a step would have been under any ordinary circumstances nothing to take notice of, but Violet had gradually worked herself up into a state of alarm, and this unusual proceeding created more surmises in her mind even than the lonely walks in the darkness. She slipped out of the house thinking to watch Agnes’ progress through The Towers by the light she carried, which would show which rooms she went into. It fell out exactly as she had supposed—she saw the light of the little lamp flit about from window to window and along the corridors, now disappearing from sight entirely, and now suddenly flickering out again, till at last it stopped in what Violet well knew was the Blue Room. This room was so called from the colour employed in decorating the walls. They were painted instead of being papered, much in the same style as the houses at Pompeii, only in larger panels, and the ground colour was blue. From the lawn in front of the house Violet could just see Agnes seated at a table in this room, and before her was a small desk—a desk she had often noticed in that room, thinking how incongruous a plain gentleman’s writing-desk, with brass handles, looked amidst the elegant furniture and decorations.</p>
|
||||
<p>Out of this desk Agnes was taking what, at that distance, Violet could only conjecture were letters, and burning them one by one in the flame of the lamp.</p>
|
||||
<p>Presently she paused, and Violet saw her kiss something which looked like a curl of chestnut hair. Then not fancying her self-imposed task of watching her benefactress, and convinced that there was no danger, Violet stole away.</p>
|
||||
<p>Agnes was, in fact, destroying her memorials of Walter De Warren, which she had kept in his own desk in the room in which she had last seen him alive. She had determined to cast aside all remembrance of him; his memory should not embarrass her in the course she would pursue. Freed from the slightest control by him, she thought that she would be the better able to choose between the earthly and the immortal destinies offered to her. Yet she still lingered, still hesitated. She could not say to Marese “I will,” nor could she say “I will not.” She permitted his money to be used in freeing her estate of encumbrance, and this gave him a moral claim upon her hand. After that was done, it seemed to her that the spirit who visited her at “The Pot” visibly frowned, and the great eyes were full of reproach.</p>
|
||||
<p>Agnes was, in fact, destroying her memorials of Walter De Warren, which she had kept in his own desk in the room in which she had last seen him alive. She had determined to cast aside all remembrance of him; his memory should not embarrass her in the course she would pursue. Freed from the slightest control by him, she thought that she would be the better able to choose between the earthly and the immortal destinies offered to her. Yet she still lingered, still hesitated. She could not say to Marese “I will,” nor could she say “I will not.” She permitted his money to be used in freeing her estate of encumbrance, and this gave him a moral claim upon her hand. After that was done, it seemed to her that the spirit who visited her at “The Pot” visibly frowned, and the great eyes were full of reproach.</p>
|
||||
<p>What was this feeble earthly glory to that which was offered to her in the sky? She had chosen wrongly, contrary to the spirit of the proud and ambitious Lechesters; she was acting in opposition to the traditions of her race. Marese, after all, was a lowborn upstart. The ancestry of the spirit had no beginning and no end. Again she hesitated.</p>
|
||||
<p>About this time there came a letter from Miss Merton, dated Torquay, written in a formal but polite manner, begging to be informed what she had better do with the dog Dando. She did not wish to get rid of him—she had become quite attached to the dog and he to her—but she was not the actual owner, and she did not like the responsibility of having so valuable an animal with her.</p>
|
||||
<p>It seemed as if the value of the dog was well known, for at least two deliberate attempts had been made to steal it within a few days. And these attempts had not a little alarmed Miss Merton. To find that her steps were watched and followed by a wild-looking tramp, or tinker fellow, bent upon carrying off the dog was, to say the least, extremely unpleasant.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
|
|||
<p>Not all the poverty and restraint of the years upon Wick Farm at World’s End, not all the terrible disappointment on the very day when every hope seemed on the point of realisation; nothing could dull his vivid imagination, or make him abate one iota of the future which he had marked out for Violet.</p>
|
||||
<p>In truth, she wondered why he had never asked her to come to him—to be married and live with him in his humble lodgings at Barnham. She would have been happy and content. But to Aymer the idea was impossible. All the romance of his life was woven around her head; he would not bring her to miserable back rooms, to a confined narrow life in a third-class street. It would have been to admit that his whole being was a failure; that he had formed hopes and dreamed dreams beyond his power ever to grasp, and his spirit was not yet broken to that. No, he would struggle and work, and bear anything for Violet’s sake. Anything but this miserable monotony without progress. Had there been progress, however slow, he might have tamed his impatient mind and forced himself to endure it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Day after day passed, the nights came and went, and each morning found him precisely in the same position as before. His organisation was too sensitive, too highly wrought, eager, nervous, for the dull plodding of daily life. He chafed against it, till dark circles formed themselves under his eyelids—circles which sleep would not remove. These were partly caused by overwork.</p>
|
||||
<p>Broughton, on returning from Stirmingham, found his affairs at Barnham had got into a fearful state of muddle, and Aymer had to assist him to clear the Augean stable of accumulated correspondence, and satisfy neglected clients. Often, after a long day’s work, he had to carry accounts or correspondence home with him and finish it there, and then after that he would open his own plain simple desk—much such a desk as the one that had belonged to poor Cornet De Warren—and resume his interrupted <abbr class="eoc">MS.</abbr></p>
|
||||
<p>Broughton, on returning from Stirmingham, found his affairs at Barnham had got into a fearful state of muddle, and Aymer had to assist him to clear the Augean stable of accumulated correspondence, and satisfy neglected clients. Often, after a long day’s work, he had to carry accounts or correspondence home with him and finish it there, and then after that he would open his own plain simple desk—much such a desk as the one that had belonged to poor Cornet De Warren—and resume his interrupted <abbr class="eoc">MS.</abbr></p>
|
||||
<p>After a while it became unbearable; the poor fellow grew desperate. He might not have so soon given way, had not a slight attack of illness, not sufficient to confine him indoors, added to the tension of his nerves. He determined to stay on until his <abbr>MS.</abbr> was finished—till the last word had been written, and the last sketch elaborated—then he would go to London, no matter what became of him. If all else failed he could, at the last, return to Wick Farm; they would give him a bed and a crust, and he would be no worse off than before.</p>
|
||||
<p>He toiled at his book at midnight, and long hours afterwards, when the good people of Barnham town were calmly sleeping the sleep of the just, and permitting the talent in their midst to eat its own heart. At last it was finished, and he left.</p>
|
||||
<p><abbr>Mr.</abbr> Broughton wished him to stay, offered to increase his salary, said that he had become really useful, and even, as a personal favour, begged him to remain. Aymer thanked him sincerely, but was firm—he must go. So far as was possible he explained to Broughton the reason, and the lawyer, hard as he was, had sufficient power of understanding others to perceive the real state of affairs. He warned Aymer that certain disappointment awaited him in London, that no publisher would issue a book by an unknown author unless paid for it. Aymer shook his head sadly—he had known that well enough long ago, but he must go.</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
|
|||
<p>“You did not say farewell here?” said Agnes, with emphasis.</p>
|
||||
<p>Violet admitted it.</p>
|
||||
<p>“Good Heavens—what an evil omen!” muttered Agnes, and drew her from the spot.</p>
|
||||
<p>From that very room De Warren had gone forth to his fate: from that room Aymer had started to win himself a way in the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>From that very room De Warren had gone forth to his fate: from that room Aymer had started to win himself a way in the world.</p>
|
||||
<p>It was late at night when he reached London. Nothing could be done till the morning. As he had no experience of the ways of the metropolis, Aymer naturally paid about half as much again as was necessary, and reckoning up his slender stock of money, foresaw that he could not long remain in town at this rate.</p>
|
||||
<p><abbr>Mr.</abbr> Broughton had given him a written introduction to a firm of law-publishers and stationers with whom he dealt—not that they would be of any use to him in themselves, but in the idea that they might have connections who could serve him.</p>
|
||||
<p>Upon these gentlemen he waited in the morning, and was fairly well received. They gave him a note to another firm who were in a more popular line of business. Aymer trudged thither, and found these people very offhanded and very busy. They glanced at his manuscript—not in their line. Had he anything that would be likely to take with boys?—illustrated fiction sold best for boys and girls. Ah, well! they were sorry and very busy. Suppose he tried so-and-so?</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -54,7 +54,7 @@
|
|||
<p>Strolling slowly one evening up Cannon Street, Aymer met the great stream of city men and merchants, clerks and agents, which at that time pours out of the warehouses and offices, setting across London Bridge towards the suburbs.</p>
|
||||
<p>He walked slowly, all but despondently. It was already a week since he had written to Violet—that in itself was a strong proof of his condition of mind. It is very easy for those who have got everything, to pray each Sunday against envy, and to repeat with unction the response after the command not to covet thy neighbour’s goods. It is a different matter when one is practically destitute, when the mere value of the chain that hangs so daintily from my lady’s neck—ay, the price of the muff that warms her delicate hands—would be as a fortune, and lift the heart up out of the mire.</p>
|
||||
<p>He could not help thinking that if he had but the money, the value, of a single much-despised pony that drew a greengrocer’s cart he should be almost a prince.</p>
|
||||
<p>He passed under Temple Bar, and entered the busy Strand, walking, as it happened—events always happen, and no one can say what that word really means—on the right hand pavement, facing westwards. Painfully and wearily walking, he came to the church where the pavement makes a détour, and hesitated for a moment whether to cross to the other side or go round the church, and decided, as the road was dirty, and his old boots thin and full of holes, to follow the pavement. “Circumstances over which we have no control”—these circumstances generally commence in the smallest, least noticeable trifles. It so happened—there it is again—will anyone explain why it so happened?—that as he reached the entrance to Holywell Street, he glanced up it, and saw for the first time that avenue of old books. The author’s instinct made him first pause, and then go up it—he was tired, but he must go and look. Dingy and dirty, but tempting to a man whose library had been obtained by wiring hares. He thought, with a sigh, how many more books he could have bought with his money had he known of the existence of this cheap mart, or had he had any access to it. Here was Bohn’s Plato—for which he had paid a hardly got thirty shillings—marked up at fifteen shillings, slightly soiled it was true, but what did that matter? Here was old Herodotus—Bohn’s—marked at eighteen-pence, the very book which had cost him three hares, including carriage. The margins were all scribbled over—odd faces and odder animals rudely sketched in pen and ink, evidently some schoolboy’s crib. But what did that matter, so long as the text was complete—he cared for nothing but the text. As he lingered and heard the bells chiming seven o’clock, his eye caught sight of a little book called “A Fortune for a Shilling.”</p>
|
||||
<p>He passed under Temple Bar, and entered the busy Strand, walking, as it happened—events always happen, and no one can say what that word really means—on the right hand pavement, facing westwards. Painfully and wearily walking, he came to the church where the pavement makes a détour, and hesitated for a moment whether to cross to the other side or go round the church, and decided, as the road was dirty, and his old boots thin and full of holes, to follow the pavement. “Circumstances over which we have no control”—these circumstances generally commence in the smallest, least noticeable trifles. It so happened—there it is again—will anyone explain why it so happened?—that as he reached the entrance to Holywell Street, he glanced up it, and saw for the first time that avenue of old books. The author’s instinct made him first pause, and then go up it—he was tired, but he must go and look. Dingy and dirty, but tempting to a man whose library had been obtained by wiring hares. He thought, with a sigh, how many more books he could have bought with his money had he known of the existence of this cheap mart, or had he had any access to it. Here was Bohn’s Plato—for which he had paid a hardly got thirty shillings—marked up at fifteen shillings, slightly soiled it was true, but what did that matter? Here was old Herodotus—Bohn’s—marked at eighteen-pence, the very book which had cost him three hares, including carriage. The margins were all scribbled over—odd faces and odder animals rudely sketched in pen and ink, evidently some schoolboy’s crib. But what did that matter, so long as the text was complete—he cared for nothing but the text. As he lingered and heard the bells chiming seven o’clock, his eye caught sight of a little book called <i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">A Fortune for a Shilling</i>.</p>
|
||||
<p>It was a catching title; he remembered seeing it lying upon the itinerant bookseller’s stall in front of the Sternhold Hall. He looked at it, weighed it in his hand. He smiled sadly at his own folly. He had but fifteen pence in his pocket, and to think of throwing a whole shilling away upon such a lottery! It was absurd—childish; and yet the book fascinated him. The bookseller’s assistant came out, ostensibly to dust the books—really to see that none were pocketed. Aymer ran his eye down the pages of the book, feeling all the while as if he were cheating the bookseller of his money. The assistant said, “Only one shilling, sir; a chance for everybody, sir, in that book.” Aymer shut his eyes to his own folly, paid the money, and returned into the Strand with threepence left.</p>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
|
|||
<p>Early in the spring the labourers struck, and the strike extended to Belthrop. The months passed on, the farmers were in difficulty, and meantime the wretched labourers were half-starved. Albert was furious, for he could not get his wheat sown, and upon that crop he depended to meet his engagements. Yet he was the one of all others, at a meeting which was called, to persuade the farmers to hold out; and above all he abused Jenkins, the secretary; called him a traitor, a firebrand, an incendiary. The meeting broke up without result; and it was on that very evening that Violet arrived. The third evening afterwards she was suddenly called out by gossiping old Hannah Bond, who rushed in, in a state of intense excitement—</p>
|
||||
<p>“Farmer Herring’s ricks be all ablaze!”</p>
|
||||
<p>Violet was dragged out by the old woman, and beheld a magnificent, and yet a sad sight. Eight and thirty ricks, placed in a double row, were on fire. About half had caught when she came out. As she stood watching, with the glare in the sky reflected upon her face, she saw the flames run along from one to another, till the whole rickyard was one mass of roaring fire. The outbuildings, the stables, and cow-houses, all thatched, caught soon after—finally the dwelling-house.</p>
|
||||
<p>The farm being situated upon the Downs, the flames and sparks were seen for miles and miles in the darkness of the night, and the glare in the sky still farther. The whole countryside turned out in wonder and alarm; hundreds and hundreds trooped over Down and meadow to the spot. Efforts were made by scores of willing hands to stay the flames—efforts which seemed ridiculously futile before that fearful blast; for with the fire there rose a wind caused by the heated column of air ascending, and the draught was like that of a furnace. Nothing could have saved the place—not all the engines in London, even had there been water; and the soil being chalky, and the situation elevated, there was but one deep well. As it was, no engine reached the spot till long after the fire was practically over—Barnham engine came in the grey of the morning, having been raced over the hills fully fifteen miles. By that time, all that was left of that noble farmhouse and rickyard, was some two-score heaps of smoking ashes, smouldering and emitting intense heat.</p>
|
||||
<p>The farm being situated upon the Downs, the flames and sparks were seen for miles and miles in the darkness of the night, and the glare in the sky still farther. The whole countryside turned out in wonder and alarm; hundreds and hundreds trooped over Down and meadow to the spot. Efforts were made by scores of willing hands to stay the flames—efforts which seemed ridiculously futile before that fearful blast; for with the fire there rose a wind caused by the heated column of air ascending, and the draught was like that of a furnace. Nothing could have saved the place—not all the engines in London, even had there been water; and the soil being chalky, and the situation elevated, there was but one deep well. As it was, no engine reached the spot till long after the fire was practically over—Barnham engine came in the grey of the morning, having been raced over the hills fully fifteen miles. By that time, all that was left of that noble farmhouse and rickyard, was some twoscore heaps of smoking ashes, smouldering and emitting intense heat.</p>
|
||||
<p>Hundreds upon hundreds stood looking on, and among them there moved dark figures:—policemen—who had hastily gathered together.</p>
|
||||
<p>And where was Albert Herring? Was he ruined? He at that moment recked nothing of the fire. He was stooping—in a lowly cottage at a little distance—over the form of his only son, a boy of ten. The family had easily escaped before the dwelling-house took fire, and were, to all intents and purposes, safe; but this lad slipped off, as a lad would do, to follow his father, and watch the flames. A burning beam from one of the outhouses struck him down. Albert heard a scream; turned, and saw his boy beneath the flaring, glowing timber. He shrieked—literally shrieked—and tore at the beam with his scorched hands till the flesh came off.</p>
|
||||
<p>At last the onlookers lifted the beam. The lad was fearfully burnt—one whole shoulder seemed injured—and the doctors gave no hope of his life. (As I cannot return to this matter, it may be as well to state that he did not die—he recovered slowly, but perfectly.) Yet what must the agony of that man’s mind have been while the child lay upon the bed in the lowly cottage? Let the fire roar and hiss, let rooftree fall and ruin come—life, flickering life more precious than the whole world—only save him this one little life.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
|
|||
<p>When he found himself with seventy pounds in his pocket, he had taken a better lodging, having previously written to Violet to apprise her of his removal, but as she never had his letter, her note to him was delivered at the old address, and Aymer’s old landlady, irritated at his leaving her, coolly put it on the fire.</p>
|
||||
<p>Violet had only written once, for she too was astonished, and a little hurt, because Aymer did not write to her, and in addition, she had been much disturbed by the great fire and the trial of poor Jenkins. The upshot was, that Aymer leaving his monotonous labour in the London churches, took train and came down to the nearest station to The Towers.</p>
|
||||
<p>Never doubting his reception, he drove up to the mansion, and was surprised beyond measure when the servants, respectfully and regretfully, but firmly announced that Lady Lechester would not see him. Where was Miss Waldron? Miss Waldron had left—the newspaper said she was at Belthrop, but that was a day or two ago.</p>
|
||||
<p>Bewildered, and not a little upset, Aymer mechanically turned on his heel—he had dismissed his fly at the park gates—and set out to walk to Belthrop. He had almost reached that very little wicket-gate where Lady Lechester had met the apparition of Cornet De Warren, when he heard a voice calling his name, and saw a gentleman hastily following him. It was Theodore, who had requested the servants, and enforced his request by a bribe, to at once inform him when <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet called.</p>
|
||||
<p>Bewildered, and not a little upset, Aymer mechanically turned on his heel—he had dismissed his fly at the park gates—and set out to walk to Belthrop. He had almost reached that very little wicket-gate where Lady Lechester had met the apparition of Cornet De Warren, when he heard a voice calling his name, and saw a gentleman hastily following him. It was Theodore, who had requested the servants, and enforced his request by a bribe, to at once inform him when <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet called.</p>
|
||||
<p>Theodore had a difficult task before him; but he approached it with full confidence in himself. Without a moment’s delay he introduced himself as Marese Baskette’s cousin, and at once noted the change that passed over Aymer’s countenance. Ah!—then <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet was aware of the previous intimacy that had existed between him and <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Baskette? That intimacy was now at an end. He frankly admitted that he had come to The Towers in the interest of Marese; but upon his arrival he had heard, to his intense surprise, of <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet’s discovery of the Waldron claim. To him that claim appeared indisputable: he had written as much to <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Baskette, and the consequence was a quarrel. They had parted: and he was now endeavouring to persuade Lady Lechester to break off her association with that man.</p>
|
||||
<p>He had heard with great interest the career of <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet—he had seen his book; and while he regretted his misfortunes, he rejoiced that circumstances enabled him to offer <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet a most lucrative and remunerative post—a post that would at once give him ease and leisure to promote his literary labours; which would supply him with funds to continue his researches into the Waldron claims—and perhaps to bring the guilty to justice; which would even—this in a delicate manner—it would even permit of an immediate union with Miss Waldron.</p>
|
||||
<p>Further, as this post was in the city of Stirmingham, <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet would be on the very spot, and within easy reach of London. The only difficulty was that it required <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet’s immediate presence in Stirmingham, as it would be necessary to fill the place at once. Probably from the direction of <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet’s steps he was on his way to visit Belthrop, and to congratulate the truly heroic Miss Waldron upon her gallant attempt to save an innocent man from punishment. At the same time, perhaps, <abbr>Mr.</abbr> Malet would really serve Miss Waldron’s interest better by at once proceeding to Stirmingham that very afternoon with Theodore.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
|
|||
<p>At the clubs they freely discussed his wealth. When realised it would put the Rothschilds, and Coutts, and Barings, and all the other famous names—the Astors of New York and even the princes of India—into the shade.</p>
|
||||
<p>Stirmingham, the busiest city in England, surrounded with a triple belt of iron furnaces, undermined with hundreds of miles of coal galleries, was it possible to estimate the value of that wonderful place? Why, the estate in the time of old Sternhold Baskette was roughly put at twenty millions sterling—that was thirty years ago or more—what must it be worth now? There really was no calculating it. Suppose he got but one quarter of what he was entitled to—say property worth only five millions—there was a fine thing. What on earth had the ladies been thinking of all these years that they had not secured so rich a prize?</p>
|
||||
<p>Lady Lechester was not a little envied. County families and others, from whom she had kept aloof for years, overlooked the disrespect, and called upon her with their congratulations. Invitations poured in upon her; the whole county talked of nothing else but Lady Lechester’s wedding; even the great fire was forgotten.</p>
|
||||
<p>In London circles the name of Agnes Lechester, which from long retirement had almost dropped out of memory, was revived, and the old story of the attachment to the dragoon and his untimely end in the East, was dug up and sent on its way from mansion to mansion. It was nothing but pride that made her refuse poor De Warren who was a handsomer man than Baskette, and came of quite as good a family as her own. However, fortune seemed to favour these creatures—why, she must be five-and-thirty; five-and-thirty, ay, closer on forty; older than Marese—much older.</p>
|
||||
<p>In London circles the name of Agnes Lechester, which from long retirement had almost dropped out of memory, was revived, and the old story of the attachment to the dragoon and his untimely end in the East, was dug up and sent on its way from mansion to mansion. It was nothing but pride that made her refuse poor De Warren who was a handsomer man than Baskette, and came of quite as good a family as her own. However, fortune seemed to favour these creatures—why, she must be five-and-thirty; five-and-thirty, ay, closer on forty; older than Marese—much older.</p>
|
||||
<p>To Agnes, all the conversation that went on around, and the echo of which reached her, was happiness itself. The intense pride and ambition of her nature, which had partly kept her in retirement, blazed out in all its native vigour. Her step was slow and stately; her manner grew cold and haughty; her conversation distant. When poor old Jenkins’s wife came with the ancient Bible, she bought it, indeed, and put it on the library table, but barely looked at it. Six months before she would have criticised it carefully, and entered a descriptive record of it in the catalogue which she kept with her own hand. Now it was disdainfully tossed upon one side.</p>
|
||||
<p>A point that was sometimes discussed between these formal and distant lovers was the place of their future residence, and as Lady Lechester hated The Towers, and Marese said that the country house near Stirmingham had of late been closely approached by the coal mines, it was finally settled that they should reside in a mansion near Regent’s Park, which belonged to Lady Lechester, until Marese could build a suitable place. This he announced his intention of doing upon a magnificent scale.</p>
|
||||
<p>It was singular that old Sternhold, whose life was spent in adding stone to stone and brick to brick, had never contemplated the idea of building himself a palace.</p>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -1,41 +1,41 @@
|
|||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
|
||||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" epub:prefix="z3998: http://www.daisy.org/z3998/2012/vocab/structure/, se: https://standardebooks.org/vocab/1.0" xml:lang="en-US">
|
||||
<head>
|
||||
<title>Colophon</title>
|
||||
<link href="../css/core.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<link href="../css/se.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body epub:type="backmatter">
|
||||
<section id="colophon" epub:type="colophon">
|
||||
<header>
|
||||
<h2 epub:type="title">Colophon</h2>
|
||||
<img alt="The Standard Ebooks logo." src="../images/logo.svg" epub:type="z3998:publisher-logo se:image.color-depth.black-on-transparent"/>
|
||||
</header>
|
||||
<p><i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">World’s End</i><br/>
|
||||
was published in 1877 by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jefferies">Richard Jefferies</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>This ebook was produced for<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://standardebooks.org">Standard Ebooks</a><br/>
|
||||
by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://sloum.colorfield.space">Brian Evans</a>,<br/>
|
||||
and is based on a transcription produced in 2011 by<br/>
|
||||
<b>An Anonymous Volunteer</b> for<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37079">Project Gutenberg</a><br/>
|
||||
and on digital scans from the<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end#page-scans">Internet Archive</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>The cover page is adapted from<br/>
|
||||
<i epub:type="se:name.visual-art.painting">PAINTING</i>,<br/>
|
||||
a painting completed in YEAR by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="COVER_ARTIST_WIKI_URL">COVER_ARTIST</a>.<br/>
|
||||
The cover and title pages feature the<br/>
|
||||
<b epub:type="se:name.visual-art.typeface">League Spartan</b> and <b epub:type="se:name.visual-art.typeface">Sorts Mill Goudy</b><br/>
|
||||
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com">The League of Moveable Type</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first edition of this ebook was released on<br/>
|
||||
<b>January 1, 1900, 12:00 <abbr class="eoc">a.m.</abbr></b><br/>
|
||||
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end">standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at <a href="https://standardebooks.org">standardebooks.org</a>.</p>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
<head>
|
||||
<title>Colophon</title>
|
||||
<link href="../css/core.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
|
||||
<link href="../css/se.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body epub:type="backmatter">
|
||||
<section id="colophon" epub:type="colophon">
|
||||
<header>
|
||||
<h2 epub:type="title">Colophon</h2>
|
||||
<img alt="The Standard Ebooks logo." src="../images/logo.svg" epub:type="z3998:publisher-logo se:image.color-depth.black-on-transparent"/>
|
||||
</header>
|
||||
<p><i epub:type="se:name.publication.book">World’s End</i><br/>
|
||||
was published in 1877 by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jefferies">Richard Jefferies</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>This ebook was produced for<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://standardebooks.org">Standard Ebooks</a><br/>
|
||||
by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://sloum.colorfield.space">Brian Evans</a>,<br/>
|
||||
and is based on a transcription produced in 2011 by<br/>
|
||||
<b>An Anonymous Volunteer</b> for<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37079">Project Gutenberg</a><br/>
|
||||
and on digital scans from the<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end#page-scans">Internet Archive</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>The cover page is adapted from<br/>
|
||||
<i epub:type="se:name.visual-art.painting">PAINTING</i>,<br/>
|
||||
a painting completed in YEAR by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="COVER_ARTIST_WIKI_URL">COVER_ARTIST</a>.<br/>
|
||||
The cover and title pages feature the<br/>
|
||||
<b epub:type="se:name.visual-art.typeface">League Spartan</b> and <b epub:type="se:name.visual-art.typeface">Sorts Mill Goudy</b><br/>
|
||||
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com">The League of Moveable Type</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first edition of this ebook was released on<br/>
|
||||
<b>January 1, 1900, 12:00 <abbr class="eoc">a.m.</abbr></b><br/>
|
||||
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at<br/>
|
||||
<a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end">standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/worlds-end</a>.</p>
|
||||
<p>The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at <a href="https://standardebooks.org">standardebooks.org</a>.</p>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue