Charlotte's Inheritance. M. E. Braddon

AFTER MANY SHIPWRECKS.

       CHAPTER I.

       CHAPTER II.

       CHAPTER III.

       CHAPTER IV.

       CHAPTER V.

       CHAPTER VI.

       CHAPTER VII.

       CHAPTER VIII.

       CHAPTER IX.

       CHAPTER X.

      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

       Table of Contents

Book the first.

       Table of Contents

DE PROFUNDIS.

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.

       Table of Contents

      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