Project Gutenberg's The Marriage of William Ashe, by Mrs. Humphry Ward

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Marriage of William Ashe

Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward

Release Date: November 22, 2004 [EBook #14126]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARRIAGE OF WILLIAM ASHE ***

Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: LADY KITTY BRISTOL]

The Marriage
of
William Ashe

BY

MRS. HUMPHRY WARD
Author of "Lady Rose's Daughter" "Eleanor" etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY
ALBERT STERNER

[Illustration]

1905

Contents

PAGE
PART I. ACQUAINTANCE . . . . . . . 1
PART II. THREE YEARS AFTER . . . . 125
PART III. DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . 293
PART IV. STORM . . . . . . . . . . 365
PART V. REQUIESCAT . . . . . . . . 511

TO

D.M.W.

DAUGHTER AND FRIEND

I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK

MARCH, 1905

Illustrations

LADY KITTY BRISTOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
LADY TRANMORE AND MARY LYSTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . <i>Facing page</i> 6
"A SLIM GIRL IN WHITE AT THE FAR END OF THE LARGE ROOM" . . . . . . 44
THE FINISHING TOUCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
"HE GATHERED HER IN HIS ARMS" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
"THE ACTRESS PAUSED TO STARE AT LADY KITTY" . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
"SHE THOUGHT OF CLIFFE STANDING BESIDE THE DOOR OF THE GREAT HALL" . 474
"HE DREW SOME CHAIRS TOGETHER BEFORE THE FIRE" . . . . . . . . . . . 556

PART I

ACQUAINTANCE

"Just oblige me and touch
With your scourge that minx Chloe, but don't hurt her much."

The Marriage of William Ashe

I

"He ought to be here," said Lady Tranmore, as she turned away from the
window.

Mary Lyster laid down her work. It was a fine piece of church
embroidery, which, seeing that it had been designed for her by no less a
person than young Mr. Burne Jones himself, made her the envy of her
pre-Raphaelite friends.

"Yes, indeed. You made out there was a train about twelve."

"Certainly. They c