The Project Gutenberg EBook of May Brooke, by Anna H. Dorsey

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Title: May Brooke

Author: Anna H. Dorsey

Release Date: October 18, 2005 [EBook #16902]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAY BROOKE ***

Produced by Al Haines

MAY BROOKE

by

MRS. ANNA H. DORSEY

P. J. KENEDY & SONS

NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA

Copyright, 1888,

BY

P. J. KENEDY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I.--UNCLE STILLINGHAST
II.--MAY BROOKE
III.--THE MORNING ERRAND
IV.--AUNT MABEL
V.--PAST AND PRESENT
VI.--HELEN
VII.--THINGS OF TIME AND ETERNITY
VIII.--TROUBLED WATERS
IX.--TRIALS
X.--THE WARNING
XI.--THE MIDNIGHT MESSENGER
XII.--REPENTANCE
XIII.--THE NEW WILL
XIV.--THE SECRET SIN
XV.--THE DISCOVERY
XVI.--THE DEATH DREAM
XVII.--REMORSE
XVIII.--REPENTANCE
XIX.--CONCLUSION

CONSCIENCE;

OR,

THE TRIALS OF MAY BROOKE.

CHAPTER I.

UNCLE STILLINGHAST.

"Do you think they will be here to-night, sir?"

"Don't know, and don't care."

"The road is very bad,"--after a pause, "that skirts the Hazel
property."

"Well, what then; what then, little May?"

"The carriage might be overturned, sir; or, the horses might shy a
little to the left, and go over the precipice into the creek."

"Is that all?"

"Is it not dreadful to think of, sir?"

"Well, I don't know; I should be sorry to lose the horses--"

"Oh, sir! and my cousin! Did you forget her?"

"I _care_ nothing about her. I suppose my forefathers must have
committed some crime for which I am to suffer, by being made,
willy-nilly, the guardian of two silly, mawkish girls."

"But, sir, you have been very kind to me, and it shall be the endeavor
of my life to prove my gratitude."

"Very fine, without being in the least consoling! I'd as lief have two
African monkeys under my care--don't laugh--it exasperates, and makes
me feel like doing as I should do, if I had the cursed animals--"

"How is that, sir?"

"Beat you. I hate womankind. Most of all do I hate them in their
transition stages. They are like sponges, and absorb every