Charlotte's Inheritance. M. E. Braddon
AFTER MANY SHIPWRECKS.
Book the First.
DE PROFUNDIS.
I. LENOBLE OF BEAUBOCAGE
II. IN THIS WIDE WORLD I STAND ALONE
III. PAST HOPE, AND IN DESPAIR
IV. A DECREE OF BANISHMENT
Book the Second.
DOWNHILL.
I. THE FATE OF SUSAN LENOBLE
II. FORGIVEN TOO LATE
III. GUSTAVE THE SECOND
Book the Third.
THE HORATIAD.
I. CHIEFLY RETROSPECTIVE
II. EPISTOLARY
III. TOO CLEVER FOR A CATSPAW
IV. CAPTAIN PAGET IS PATERNAL
V. THE CAPTAIN'S COADJUTOR
Book the Fourth.
GUSTAVE IN ENGLAND.
I. HALCYON DAYS
II. CAPTAIN PAGET AWAKENS TO A SENSE OF HIS DUTY
III. WHAT DO WE HERE, MY HEART AND I?
IV. SHARPER THAN A SERPENT'S TOOTH
Book the Fifth.
THE FIRST ACT OF MR. SHELDON'S DRAMA.
I. TAKEN BY STORM
II. FIRM AS A ROCK
III. AGAINST WIND AND TIDE
IV. DIANA ASKS FOR A HOLIDAY
V. ASSURANCE DOUBLY SURE
Book the Sixth.
DIANA IN NORMANDY.
I. AT CÔTENOIR
Book the Seventh.
A CLOUD OF FEAR.
I. THE BEGINNING OF SORROW
II. FADING
III. MRS. WOOLPER IS ANXIOUS
IV. VALENTINE'S SKELETON
V. AT HAROLD'S HILL
VI. DESPERATE MEASURES
Book the Eighth.
A FIGHT AGAINST TIME.
I. A DREAD REVELATION
II. PHOENICIANS ARE RISING
III. THE SORTES VIRGILIANÆ
Book the Ninth.
THROUGH THE FURNACE.
I. SOMETHING TOO MUCH
II. DR. JEDD'S OPINION
III. NON DORMIT JUDAS
IV. COUNTING THE COST
V. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
VI. CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED
VII. THERE IS A WORD WILL PRIAM TURN TO STONE
Book the Tenth.
HARBOUR, AFTER MANY SHIPWRECKS.
I. OUT OF THE DARK VALLEY
II. AFTER THE WEDDING
III. GREEK AGAINST GREEK
IV. ONLY A DREAM
V. BOHEMIAN INDEPENDENCE
VI. BEYOND THE VEIL
VII. BETTER THAN GOLD
VIII. LOST SIGHT OF
IX. ETEOCLES AND POLYNICES
X. "ACCORDING TO THEIR DEEDS."
CHARLOTTE'S INHERITANCE
Book the first.
DE PROFUNDIS.
CHAPTER I.
LENOBLE OF BEAUBOCAGE.
In the days when the Bourbon reigned over Gaul, before the "simple, sensuous, passionate" verse of Alfred de Musset had succeeded the débonnaire Muse of Béranger in the affections of young France—in days when the site of the Trocadero was a remote and undiscovered country, and the word "exposition" unknown in the Academic dictionary, and the Gallic Augustus destined to rebuild the city yet an exile—a young law-student boarded, in common with other students, in a big dreary-looking house at the corner of the Rue Grande-Mademoiselle, abutting on the Place Lauzun, and within some ten minutes walk of the Luxembourg. It was a very dingy quarter, though noble gentlemen and lovely ladies had once occupied the great ghastly mansions, and disported themselves in the gruesome gardens. But the young students were in nowise oppressed by the ghastliness of their abode. They sang their Béranger, and they pledged each other in cheap Bordeaux, and clinked their glasses noisily in their boisterous good-fellowship, and ate the messes compounded for them in a darksome cupboard, known as the kitchen, by old Nanon the cook, purblind, stone-deaf, and all but imbecile, and popularly supposed to be the venerable mother of Madame Magnotte. The youngsters grumbled to each other about the messes when they were unusually mysterious; and it must be owned that there were vol-au-vents and fricandeaux consumed in that establishment which were awful and wonderful in their nature; but they ventured on no complaint to the mistress of the mansion. She was a grim and terrible personage. Her terms were low, and she treated her boarders de haute en bas. If they were not content with her viands, they might go and find more agreeable viands elsewhere.
Madame Magnotte was altogether mysterious