Good Lady Ducayne
()
About this ebook
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) was an English novelist and actress during the Victorian era. Although raised by a single mother, Braddon was educated at private institutions where she honed her creative skills. As a young woman, she worked as a theater actress to support herself and her family. When interest faded, she shifted to writing and produced her most notable work Lady Audley's Secret. It was one of more than 80 novels Braddon wrote of the course of an expansive career.
Read more from Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Goosebumps for Christmas: 30+ Supernatural Thrillers & Ghost Stories: Told After Supper, Between the Lights, The Box with the Iron Clamps , Wolverden Tower The Ghost's Touch, The Christmas Banquet, The Dead Sexton and much more Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Christmas Hirelings: Children's Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLady Audley's Secret Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Murder Mysteries - The Mary Elizabeth Braddon Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trail of the Serpent (Detective Mystery) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fifth Ghost Story MEGAPACK ®: 25 Classic Haunts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Doctor's Wife: Victorian Romance Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVixen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Big Book of Christmas Mysteries: What the Shepherd Saw, The Mystery of Room Five, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle... Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond These Voices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Darkness of a Christmas Eve: Ghost Stories, Supernatural Mysteries & Gothic Horrors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dead Rise Again on Christmas Eve: 40 Occult & Supernatural Thrillers, Horror Classics & Macabre Mysteries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shadow in the Corner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trail of the Serpent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Good Lady Ducayne
Related ebooks
Dracula Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKwaidan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Castle of Wolfenbach Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLockdown Phantom #4: Lockdown, #19 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Flicker Against the Light and Writing the Contemporary Uncanny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrotchet Castle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoll Flanders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTOO MANY EYES: and Other Thrilling Strange Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Yellow Wallpaper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCouch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gray Woman and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Undying Monster Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConsumed by a Season Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings7 best short stories by Mary Shelley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark Coven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Turn of the Screw Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMelmoth the Wanderer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrankenstein Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn a Glass Darkly Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadows & Tall Trees, Vol. 8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDarling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Orphan of the Rhine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghost Ship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Old Fears Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excerpts from a Film (1942-1987): A Tor.com Original Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Issue 79: The Dark, #79 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Villa and The Vortex: Selected Supernatural Stories, 1914-1924 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Gothic For You
The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Housemaid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gormenghast Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harvest Home: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wife Upstairs: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lost Gods: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once Upon a River: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragonwyck: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blackhouse: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5O Caledonia: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shadows in Summerland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy: 100 Unseen Illustrations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Titus Alone Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Things in Jars: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selections from Fragile Things, Volume Two: 6 Short Fictions and Wonders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catherine House: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gallows Hill Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Writer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zombie: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Reluctant Immortals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE RAVEN (Illustrated Edition): Including Essays about the Poem & Biography of Edgar Allan Poe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gothic Novel Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lives of the Monster Dogs: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Familiars: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hold My Place Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Haunting of Ashburn House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Close Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Good Lady Ducayne
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Good Lady Ducayne - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
GOOD LADY DUCAYNE
CHAPTER I
Bella Rolleston had made up her mind that her only chance of earning her bread and helping her mother to an occasional crust was by going out into the great unknown world as companion to a lady. She was willing to go to any lady rich enough to pay her a salary and so eccentric as to wish for a hired companion. Five shillings told off reluctantly from one of those sovereigns which were so rare with the mother and daughter, and which melted away so quickly, five solid shillings, had been handed to a smartly-dressed lady in an office in Harbeck Street, W., in the hope that this very Superior Person would find a situation and a salary for Miss Rolleston.
The Superior Person glanced at the two half-crowns as they lay on the table where Bella’s hand had placed them, to make sure they were neither of them forms, before she wrote a description of Bella’s qualifications and requirements in a formidable-looking ledger.
‘Age?’ she asked curtly.
‘Eighteen, last July.’
‘Any accomplishments?’
‘No; I am not at all accomplished. If I were I should want to be a governess--a companion seems the lowest stage.’
‘We have some highly accomplished ladies on our books as companions, or chaperon companions.’
‘Oh, I know!’ babbled Bella, loquacious in her youthful candour. ‘But that is quite a different thing. Mother hasn’t been able to afford a piano since I was twelve years old, so I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to play. And I have had to help mother with her needlework, so there hasn’t been much time to study.’
‘Please don’t waste time upon explaining what you can’t do, but kindly tell me anything you can do,’ said the Superior Person, crushingly, with her pen poised between delicate fingers waiting to write. ‘Can you read aloud for two or three hours at a stretch? Are you active and handy, an early riser, a good walker, sweet tempered, and obliging?’
‘I can say yes to all those questions except about the sweetness. I think I have a pretty good temper, and I should be anxious to oblige anybody who paid for my services. I should want them to feel that I was really earning my salary.’
‘The kind of ladies who come to me would not care for a talkative companion,’ said the Person, severely, having finished writing in her book. ‘My connection lies chiefly among the aristocracy, and in that class considerable deference is expected.’
‘Oh, of course,’ said Bella; ‘but it’s quite different when I’m talking to you. I want to tell you all about myself once and for ever.’
‘I am glad it is to be only once!’ said the Person, with the edges of her lips.
The Person was of uncertain age, tightly laced in a black silk gown. She had a powdery complexion and a handsome clump of somebody else’s hair on the top of her head. It may be that Bella’s girlish freshness and vivacity had an irritating effect upon nerves weakened by