Transcribed from the 1902 Macmillan and Co. “Countess Kate and The Stokesley Secret” edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE STOKESLEY SECRET

BY
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1902

All rights reserved

Richard Clay and Sons, Limited,
LONDON AND BUNGAY

Transferred to Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1901. Reprinted, 1902.

CHAPTER I.

“How can a pig pay the rent?”

The question seemed to have been long under consideration, to judge by the manner in which it came out of the pouting lips of that sturdy young five-year-old gentleman, David Merrifield, as he sat on a volume of the great Latin Dictionary to raise him to a level with the tea-table.