In Brief Authority Book

IN BRIEF AUTHORITY - 1915 - NOTE IT may be as well to mention here that the whole of this book was planned, and at least three-fourths of it actually written, in those happy days, which now seem so pathetically distant, when we were still at peace-days when, to all but a very few, so hideous a calamity as a World-War seemed a danger that had passed for the present, and might never recur when even those few could hardly have foreseen that England would be so soon compelled to fight for her very existence against the most efficient and deadly foe it has ever been her lot to encounter. But, as the central idea of this story happens to be inseparably connected with certain characters . and incidents of German origin, I have left them unaltered-partly because it would have been difficultl, if not impossible, to substitute any others, but mainly because I cannot bring myself to believe that the nursery friends of our youth could ever be regarded as enemies. -- CONTENTS -- CHAP. I. THE SKIRTS O F HAPPY C HANC E IV. CROWNED H EADS . VI. CARES OF STATE . VII. A GAME THEY DID NOT UNDERSTAND VIII. A STEED TH AT KNOWS HIS RIDER IX. THE PLEASUR OF E T S H E TABLE . X. THE BLONDBEE AST . XI. A WAY OUT . XII. UNWELCO A X N E NOUNCENE . N TS XIII. WECAT THE PIGEO S X AI D XIV. BAG AND BAGGAGE. XV. RIVEN W ITH VAIN E NDEAVO . U R XVI. A CLOUD THATS DRAGONISH . XVII. THE REWARD OF VALOUR . XVIII. A PREVIO E U NG S B GEMENT . XIX. SERVAN O T F S T HE QUEEN . ir PAOE 1 X IN BRIEF ,4UTHORITY CHAP. PAGE XX. AT THE END OF IIER TETHER . 344 XXI. WHOSEL IGHTS AR E FLED, J EIOS G E ARLANDS DEAD . . 366 XSII. SQUARIN A G C COUNTS . . 392 IN BRIEF AUTHORITY CHAPTER I ON a certain afternoon in March 1Mi. s. Sidney Stimpson or rather Mrs. Sidney Wibberley-Stimpson, as a, recent legacy from a, distant relative had provided her with an excuse for styling herself was sitting alone in her drawing-room at Inglegarth, Gablehurst. Inglegarth was the name she had chosen for the house on coming to live there some years. before. What it exactly meant she could not have explained, but it sounded distinguished and out of the common, without being reprehensibly eccentric. Hence the choice. Some one, she was aware, had just entered the carriage-drive, and after having rung, was now stand ing under the white Queen Ame porch Mitchell, the rosy-cheeked and still half-trained parlour-maid, was audible in the act of answering the door. It being neither a First nor a Third Friday, Mrs. Stimpson was not, strictly speaking, at home except to very intimate friends, though she made a, point of being always presentable enough to see any afternoon caller. On this occasion she was engaged in no more absorbing occupation than the study of one of the less expensive Society journals, and, having already read all that was of real interest in its columns, she was inclined to welcome a distraction. If you please, mm, said Mitchell, entering, theres a lady wishes to know if she could see you for a minute or two. Did you ask her to state her business, Mitchell . . . No Then you should have. Called for a subscription to something, I expect. Tell her I am particularly engaged. I suppose she didnt give any name Oh yes, mm. She give her name-lady h i e t Elmslie, it was...Read More