CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
IBow Creek[1]
IIMagic Pictures[8]
IIIPriory Farm[14]
IVA New Vatman[26]
VThe Rag House[30]
VIThe Martyr[40]
VIIThe Blue Mark[51]
VIIIAssault and Battery[62]
IXThe Old Priory[73]
XThe Letter[87]
XILydia’s Day[98]
XIIMedora’s Night[113]
XIIIIn London[122]
XIVThe Drying Lofts[132]
XVGoing up Corkscrew Hill[139]
XVIAt “The Waterman’s Arms”[149]
XVIITragedy in the Sizing Room[159]
XVIIINed Hears Mr. Knox[170]
XIXEmotions of Medora[181]
XXPhilander’s Fate[192]
XXIThe Protest[207]
XXIIA Test for Jordan Kellock[220]
XXIIIThe Wisdom of Philander[229]
XXIVNed and Medora[239]
XXVThe Explanation[249]
XXVIThe Stroke[258]
XXVIIThe Doctor[271]
XXVIIIThe Confession[279]
XXIXThe Bargain[286]
XXXFire Beacon Hill[297]

STORM IN A TEACUP

CHAPTER I
BOW CREEK

How musical are the place names on the tidal water of Dart. Tuckenhay and Greenway, Stoke Gabriel and Dittisham, Sharpham and Duncannon—a chime of bells to the native ear that knows them.

To-day autumn rainbows burnt low on the ferny hills and set their russet flashing. Then hailstorms churned the river into a flurry and swept seaward under a grey cowl. They came with a rush of wind, that brought scarlet leaves from the wild cherry and gold dust from the larch; but soon the air cleared and the sun returned, while the silver fret of the river’s face grew calm again to mirror far-off things. Easterly the red earth arched low on the blue sky; west spread cobweb-grey orchards, their leaves fallen, their last of apples still twinkling—topaz and ruby—among the lichens of their ancient boughs. Then broad, oaken hangers met the beech scrub and the pale oak foliage was as a flame dancing above the red-hot fire of the beeches. Their conflagrations blazed along the tideway and their reflected colour poured down over the woods into the water.

Then elm trees rolled out along the river, and above them, in billows mightier than they, sailed the light-laden clouds, that seemed to lift another forest, bossed and rounded as the elm trees, and carry up their image into the sky. But the cloud glory was pale, its sun touched summits faint against the ardour of the earthborn elms.