tion>Wilkie Collins
The Dead Secret
A Novel
Published by Good Press, 2021
EAN 4057664650412
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. THE TWENTY-THIRD OF AUGUST, 1829.
CHAPTER III. THE HIDING OF THE SECRET.
CHAPTER I. FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER.
CHAPTER II. THE SALE OF PORTHGENNA TOWER.
CHAPTER III. THE BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM.
CHAPTER V. A COUNCIL OF THREE.
CHAPTER I. A PLOT AGAINST THE SECRET.
CHAPTER II. OUTSIDE THE HOUSE.
CHAPTER III. INSIDE THE HOUSE.
CHAPTER IV. MR. MUNDER ON THE SEAT OF JUDGMENT.
CHAPTER V. MOZART PLAYS FAREWELL.
CHAPTER I. AN OLD FRIEND AND A NEW SCHEME.
CHAPTER II. THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
CHAPTER III. APPROACHING THE PRECIPICE.
CHAPTER IV. STANDING ON THE BRINK.
CHAPTER VI. THE TELLING OF THE SECRET.
CHAPTER II. WAITING AND HOPING.
CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF THE PAST.
CHAPTER V. FORTY THOUSAND POUNDS.
CHAPTER VI. THE DAWN OF A NEW LIFE.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
THE TWENTY-THIRD OF AUGUST, 1829.
"Will she last out the night, I wonder?"
"Look at the clock, Mathew."
"Ten minutes past twelve! She has lasted the night out. She has lived, Robert, to see ten minutes of the new day."
These words were spoken in the kitchen of a large country-house situated on the west coast of Cornwall. The speakers were two of the men-servants composing the establishment of Captain Treverton, an officer in the navy, and the eldest male representative of an old Cornish family. Both the servants communicated with each other restrainedly, in whispers—sitting close together, and looking round expectantly toward the door whenever the talk flagged between them.
"It's an awful thing," said the elder of the men, "for us two to be alone here, at this dark time, counting out the minutes that our mistress has left
