A DEDICATION
TO SOME NEW FRIENDS.
Sometimes new friends meet one along the mid-way of life, and come forward with sweet unknown faces and with looks that seem strangely familiar to greet us.
To some of these new friends I must dedicate my story. It was begun ten years ago, and is older than my god-daughter Margie herself, who is the oldest among them. She is playing with her sister and her little cousins in the sunny Eton nurseries. Harry has a crown on. Annie is a queen who flies on errands. Ada and Lilly are Court ladies.
My neighbour Dolly and the little Dorotheas, however, have a first right to a presentation copy. It is true that the little ones cannot read, but they need not regret it; for Margie will take them on her knee and show them the pictures, and Georgie and Stella and Molly shall stand round too, and dark-eyed little Margaret can tell them her own sweet little stories, while Francis chimes in from the floor. Eleanor cannot talk, but she can sing; and so can our Laura at home and her song is her own; a sweet home song; the song of all children to those who love them. It tells of the past, and one day brings it back without a pang; it tells of a future, not remorselessly strange and chill and unknown, but bound to us by a thousand hopes and loving thoughts—a kingdom-come for us all, not of strangers, but of little children. And meanwhile Laura, measures the present with her soft little fingers as she beats time upon her mother's hand to her own vague music.
8 Southwell Gardens: March 20, 1873
CONTENTS.
[A DEDICATION]
[CHAPTER I. Bricks and Ivy]
[CHAPTER II. Dutch Tiles]
[CHAPTER III. To Old Street by the Lanes]
[CHAPTER IV. An Afternoon at Penfold's]
[CHAPTER V. Steel Pens and Goose Quills]
[CHAPTER VI. Downstairs in the Dark]
[CHAPTER VII. Cloud-capped Towers and Gorgeous Palaces]
[CHAPTER VIII. Immortelles]
[CHAPTER IX. The Bow-windowed House]
[CHAPTER X. A Snow Garden]
[CHAPTER XI. Raban meets the Shabby Angel]
[CHAPTER XII. Dorothea by Firelight]
[CHAPTER XIII. Little Brother and Little Sister]
[CHAPTER XIV. Rag Dolls]
[CHAPTER XV. George's Tunes]
[CHAPTER XVI. A Walking Party]
[CHAPTER XVII. 'Inner Life']
[CHAPTER XVIII. An Autumn Morning]
[CHAPTER XIX. Kensington Palace Chapel]
[CHAPTER XX. Rhoda to Dolly]
[CHAPTER XXI. Cinders]
[CHAPTER XXII. Mrs. Palmer]
[CHAPTER XXIII. The Terrace at All Saints' College]
[CHAPTER XXIV. Roses have Thorns, and Silver Fountains Mud]
[CHAPTER XXV. Good-night]
[CHAPTER XXVI. Good-morning]
[CHAPTER XXVII. Love Lane from Kensington to Fulham]
[CHAPTER XXVIII. Unborn To-morrow and Dead Yesterday]
[CHAPTER XXIX. Under the Great Dome]
[CHAPTER XXX. Wave or Flame]
[CHAPTER XXXI. A Boat upon the Water]
[CHAPTER XXXII. Trust me]
[CHAPTER XXXIII. Circumstance]
[CHAPTER XXXIV. White Roses]
[CHAPTER XXXV. 'Only George']
[CHAPTER XXXVI. The Slow Sad Hours]
[CHAPTER XXXVII. In an Empty Room]
[CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Pollard-trees]
[CHAPTER XXXIX. Thus far the Miles are Measured from thy Friend]
[CHAPTER XL. Under the Clock-tower]
[CHAPTER XLI. I bring you Three Letters—I pray you read One]
[CHAPTER XLII. Rachel]
[CHAPTER XLIII. Crags and Fresh Air]
[CHAPTER XLIV. White with Gazing]
[CHAPTER XLV. What Aunt Sarah left for Dolly]
[CHAPTER XLVI. The Sorrowful Message]
[CHAPTER XLVII. From Heart of very Heart]
[CHAPTER XLVIII. An Explanation]
[CHAPTER XLIX. Sheep-shearing]
[CHAPTER L. Tempered Winds]
[CHAPTER LI. 'Sing Hoarse, with Tears between']
[CHAPTER LII. An Andante of Haydn's]
[CHAPTER LIII. That thou art blamed shall not be thy Defect]
[CHAPTER LIV. Holy St. Francis, what a Change is here!]
[CHAPTER LV. See you not something beside Masonry?]
[CHAPTER LVI. The Play is played, the Curtain drops]
[THE WORKS OF MISS THACKERAY]