Project Gutenberg's The Woman in the Alcove, by Anna Katharine Green

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Title: The Woman in the Alcove

Author: Anna Katharine Green

Posting Date: November 23, 2008 [EBook #1851]
Release Date: August, 1999

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN IN THE ALCOVE ***

Produced by Steve Crites

THE WOMAN IN THE ALCOVE

By Anna Katharine Green

CONTENTS

I THE WOMAN WITH THE DIAMOND
II THE GLOVES
II ANSON DURAND
IV EXPLANATIONS
V SUPERSTITION
VI SUSPENSE
VII NIGHT AND A VOICE
VIII ARREST
IX THE MOUSE NIBBLES AT THE NET
X I ASTONISH THE INSPECTOR
XI THE INSPECTOR ASTONISHES ME
XII ALMOST
XIII THE MISSING RECOMMENDATION
XIV TRAPPED
XV SEARS OR WELLGOOD
XVI DOUBT
XVII SWEETWATER IN A NEW ROLE
XVIII THE CLOSED DOOR
XIX THE FACE
XX MOONLIGHT--AND A CLUE
XXI GRIZEL! GRIZEL!
XXII GUILT
XXIII THE GREAT MOGUL

I. THE WOMAN WITH THE DIAMOND

I was, perhaps, the plainest girl in the room that night. I was also the
happiest--up to one o'clock. Then my whole world crumbled, or, at least,
suffered an eclipse. Why and how, I am about to relate.

I was not made for love. This I had often said to myself; very often of
late. In figure I am too diminutive, in face far too unbeautiful, for me
to cherish expectations of this nature. Indeed, love had never entered
into my plan of life, as was evinced by the nurse's diploma I had just
gained after three years of hard study and severe training.

I was not made for love. But if I had been; had I been gifted with
height, regularity of feature, or even with that eloquence of expression
which redeems all defects save those which savor of deformity, I knew
well whose eye I should have chosen to please, whose heart I should have
felt proud to win.

This knowledge came with a rush to my heart--(did I say heart? I should
have said understanding, which is something very different)--when, at
the end of the first dance, I looked up from the midst of the bevy
of girls by whom I was surrounded and saw Anson