ODDS AND ENDS
: : : By B. M. Croker : : :
Author of “Her Own People,” “In Old Madras,”
“The Company’s Servant,” “Given in Marriage,”
“Bridget,” “Blue China,” etc.
LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO.
: : PATERNOSTER ROW : :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| CHAP. | PAGE | |
| I | THE SPARE BED | 3 |
| II | UNAVOIDABLY POSTPONED | 13 |
| III | THE NORTH VERANDAH | 41 |
| IV | IMITATION PEARLS | 52 |
| V | THE HELPER | 78 |
| VI | THE FATAL PARAGRAPH | 90 |
| VII | THE SHIP’S CAT | 110 |
| VIII | HELEN, OR SEMIRAMIS? | 124 |
| IX | THE RED BUNGALOW | 139 |
| X | THE SCARECROW | 157 |
| XI | THE OLD TOWN HOUSE | 178 |
| XII | THE FIND | 192 |
| XIII | THE CREAKING BOARD | 203 |
| XIV | THE SWORD OF LANBRYDE | 213 |
| XV | THE KING’S SHILLING | 218 |
| XVI | A DARK HORSE | 236 |
ODDS AND ENDS
I
THE SPARE BED
“What is the matter? What has happened?” askedAunt Lizzie. “Just open the window and find out,”she added, with her usual brisk decision.
It was nine o’clock on a dull September evening,and we two ladies were seated side by side in a 40 h.p.Daimler, which had suddenly come to a full stop on acountry road, in the west of Ireland. On either handstretched a wide expanse of dark mysterious country,to which the white waving bog cotton gave a ghostly,