The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Girl of the Commune, by George Alfred Henty

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Title: A Girl of the Commune

Author: George Alfred Henty

Release Date: January 11, 2008 [EBook #24244]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A GIRL OF THE
COMMUNE

BY

G. A. HENTY
AUTHOR OF "IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE," "WITH LEE IN
VIRGINIA," ETC.

NEW YORK
R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
9 AND 11 EAST 16TH STREET

COPYRIGHT, 1895

BY G. A. HENTY

A GIRL OF THE COMMUNE.

CHAPTER I.

Jeremiah Brander was one of the most prominent personages in the
Cathedral town of Abchester. He inhabited an old-fashioned, red brick
house near the end of the High Street. On either side was a high wall
facing the street, and from this a garden, enclosing the house,
stretched away to a little stream some two hundred yards in the rear; so
that the house combined the advantage of a business residence in front,
with those of seclusion, an excellent garden, and an uninterrupted view
behind.

Jeremiah Brander enjoyed, in a very large degree, the confidence and
respect of his fellow-townsmen. His father and his grandfather had been,
like himself, solicitors, and he numbered among his clients most of the
county families round. Smaller business he left to the three younger men
who divided between them the minor legal business of the place. He in no
way regarded them as rivals, and always spoke of them benevolently as
worthy men to whom all such business as the collection of debts,
criminal prosecutions, and such matters as the buying and selling of
houses in the town, could be safely entrusted. As for himself he
preferred to attend only to business in his own line, and he seldom
accepted fresh clients, never, indeed, until a new-comer had taken his
place among the accepted society of the county.

In the public business of the city, however, he played a very important
part. He was Town Clerk,