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Title: A Vanished Hand

Author: Sarah Doudney

Release Date: March 1, 2009 [eBook #28237]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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A VANISHED HAND

by

SARAH DOUDNEY

Author of "Where the Dew Falls in London," Etc. Etc.

With Illustrations

London
James Nisbet & Co., Limited
21 Berners Street

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press

[Illustration: SHE PUT THE ROLL OF PAPER INTO HIS HAND]

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. IN A BACK ROOM
II. WHAT WAS WRITTEN
III. TAKING COUNSEL
IV. MRS. TRYON
V. MRS. BEATON
VI. HAROLD AND META
VII. MRS. PENN
VIII. LOOKING AT PICTURES
IX. MEETINGS
X. LONELINESS
XI. MRS. VERDON
XII. HIS FIRST VISIT
XIII. IN PORTMAN SQUARE
XIV. RUSHBROOK
XV. WAYNE'S COURT
XVI. GOING TO CHURCH
XVII. THE PICNIC
XVIII. THE ISLAND
XIX. CONCLUSION

A VANISHED HAND

CHAPTER I

_IN A BACK ROOM_

"For one shall grasp, and one resign,
One drink life's rue, and one its wine,
And God shall make the balance good."
--WHITTIER.

Elsie Kilner had a battle to fight, and it must be fought after her own
fashion. It was the kind of battle which is fought every day and every
hour; but the battlefield is always a silent place, and there is neither
broken weapon nor crimson stain to tell us where the strife has been.

Elsie's battle was fought in a back room in All Saints' Street on an
afternoon in March. It was not a gloomy room; although the window looked
out upon walls and roofs and chim