The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Late Miss Hollingford, by Rosa Mulholland

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.org

Title: The Late Miss Hollingford

Author: Rosa Mulholland

Release Date: August 5, 2006 [EBook #18991]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LATE MISS HOLLINGFORD ***

Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

The Late Miss Hollingford

BY ROSA MULHOLLAND

(LADY GILBERT)

Author of "Cynthia's Bonnet Shop" "Giannetta" "Hetty Gray" "Four Little
Mischiefs" &c.

_ILLUSTRATED_

BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
LONDON GLASGOW AND DUBLIN

[Illustration: RACHEL RETURNS TO HER MOTHER.]

PREFACE.

"The Late Miss Hollingford" was published a good many years ago in the
pages of _All the Year Round_.

It has never till now been re-published in England, though it has been
translated into French under the title of _Une Idee Fantasque_, and
issued by the Bleriot Library, with a preface by M. Gounod. It has also
appeared in Italian. In the Tauchnitz Collection it is bound in with _No
Thoroughfare_, having been chosen by the late Charles Dickens as a
pendant for his own story in a volume of that series.

Mr. Dickens was so pleased with this tale, and some others by the same
author, then a very young beginner, that he wrote asking her to
contribute a serial story of considerable length to his journal.

"The Late Miss Hollingford" (the title of which was chosen by Mr.
Dickens himself) comes now asking for a favourable reception from the
public, in the name of the great master of English fiction--long passed
away from among us.

CHAPTER I.

A dear old lady tells us this story in the late autumn evenings. Now the
harvest is in, huge haycocks shelter the gable, the honey is strained
and put by in jars, the apples are ripened and stored; the logs begin to
sputter and sing in the big parlour at evening, hot cakes to steam on
the tea-table, and the pleasant lamp-lit hours to spread themselves.
Indoor things begin to have meaning