The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Maiden Aunts, by Mary H. Debenham

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Title: Two Maiden Aunts

Author: Mary H. Debenham

Illustrator: Gertrude D. Hammond

Release Date: November 18, 2009 [EBook #30498]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO MAIDEN AUNTS ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Illustration: Cover art]

[Frontispiece: _THE TWO MAIDEN AUNTS._]

TWO MAIDEN AUNTS

BY

MARY H. DEBENHAM

AUTHOR OF 'MISTRESS PHIL' 'A LITTLE CANDLE ETC.

_WITH TWO FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS_

_BY GERTRUDE D. HAMMOND_

LONDON

NATIONAL SOCIETY'S REPOSITORY

BROAD SANCTUARY, WESTMINSTER

NEW YORK: THOMAS WHITTAKER, 2 & 3 BIBLE HOUSE

[All rights reserved]

1895

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

THE MAVIS AND THE MERLIN. Price 2s.
MY GOD-DAUGHTER. Price 2s.
MOOR AND MOSS. Price 2s. 6d.
FOR KING AND HOME. Price 2s. 6d.
MISTRESS PHIL. Price 2s.
A LITTLE CANDLE. Price 3s. 6d.
FAIRMEADOWS FARM. Price 2s.
ST. HELEN'S WELL. Price 2s.

NATIONAL SOCIETY'S DEPOSITORY,

SANCTUARY, WESTMINSTER. S.W.

[Illustration: Contents headpiece]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE AUNTS
II. THE NEPHEW
III. THE FIRST DAY
IV. A HEART OF OAK
V. THE WRONG END
VI. CHRISTMAS AT OAKFIELD
VII. HERO AND HEROINES
VIII. IN THE CHANNEL
IX. IN PORT

[Illustration: Contents tailpiece]

[Illustration: Illustrations headpiece]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE TWO MAIDEN AUNTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (_Frontispiece_)

'WHAT USEFUL THINGS SHALL I DO,' HE ASKED (missing from book)

[Illustration: Illustrations tailpiece]

[Illustration: Chapter I headpiece]

TWO MAIDEN AUNTS

CHAPTER I

THE AUNTS

'Child, be mother to this child.'--E. B. BROWNING.

It was seven o'clock on an autumn morning nearly a hundred years ago.
A misty October morning, when the meadows looked grey with the heavy
dew, and the sky was only just beginning to show pale blue through the
haze which veiled it.

There was a certain little hamlet, just a few cottages clustered
together beside a country road,