The Great Refusal
An Innocent Impostor
London: John Long
Ribstone Pippins
London and New York: Harper & Bros.
Lays of the Dragon-Slayer
London: Sands & Co.
Contents
CHAPTER
I. [THE LITTLE RIFT]
II. [AN INNOCENT VERY MUCH ABROAD]
III. [THE TRAIN DE LUXE]
IV. [THE AZURE SHORE]
V. [ON THE RIDGE]
VI. [MOUNTAIN SUNSET]
VII. [THE CONVENT STEPS]
VIII. [THE CARNIVAL]
IX. [THE CASINO]
X. [THE CASINO GARDENS]
XI. [KATZENJAMMER]
XII. [M. ISIDORE'S HEARTACHE]
XIII. [THE PUBLISHER'S PARCEL]
XIV. [AT TURBIA]
XV. [AN ITALIAN LESSON]
XVI. [THE SAPPHIRE NECKLACE]
XVII. [THE PROMENADE DU MIDI]
XVIII. [THE ONLY HOPE]
XIX. [AN ACT OF JUSTICE]
XX. [THE NECKLACE AGAIN]
XXI. [CONNEXIONS BY MARRIAGE]
The Suspicions of Ermengarde
Chapter I
The Little Rift
Fog of the colour known as pea-soup—in reality amber mixed with lemon-peel and delicately tinted with smut—pervaded the genial shades of Kensington Gardens and cast a halo of breathless romance over many a "long, unlovely street" and many a towering pile of crudely hideous flats in the regions round about. It sneaked down chimneys, stalked insolently through front doors, regardless of locks, curtains and screens; it wandered noiselessly about houses, penetrating even to my lady's chamber; it permeated cosy drawing-rooms and snug dining-rooms with gloom like that of an ancestral ghost, or an unforgettable sorrow, or—the haunting horror of unpaid bills.