Mary Marston

Mary Marston

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mary Marston, by George MacDonald #28 in our series by George MacDonald
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Title: Mary Marston
Author: George MacDonald
Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8201] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 1, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARY MARSTON ***

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MARY MARSTON
A NOVEL.
BY
GEORGE MACDONALD
AUTHOR OF "ANNALS OF A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD," "ROBERT FALCONER," ETC., ETC.

CONTENTS.
I.-THE SHOP II.-CUSTOMERS III.-THE ARBOR AT THORNWICK IV.-GODFREY WARDOUR V.-GODFREY AND LETTY VI.-TOM HELMER VII.-DURNMELLING VIII.-THE OAK IX.-CONFUSION X.-THE HEATH AND THE HUT XI.-WILLIAM MARSTON XII.-MARY'S DREAM XIII.-THE HUMAN SACRIFICE XIV.-UNGENEROUS BENEVOLENCE XV.-THE MOONLIGHT XVI.-THE MORNING XVII.-THE RESULT XVIII.-MARY AND GODFREY XIX.-MARY IN THE SHOP XX.-THE WEDDING-DRESS XXI.-MR. REDMAIN XXII.-MRS. REDMAIN XXIII.-THE MENIAL XXIV.-MRS. REDMAIN'S DRAWING-ROOM XXV.-MARY'S RECEPTION XXVI.-HER POSITION XXVII.-MR. AND MRS. HELMER XXVIII.-MARY AND LETTY XXIX.-THE EVENING STAR XXX.-A SCOLDING XXXI.-SEPIA XXXII.-HONOR XXXIII.-TUB INVITATION XXXIV.-A STRAY SOUND XXXV.-THE MUSICIAN XXXVI.-A CHANGE XXXVII.-LYDGATE STREET XXXVIII.-GODFREY AND LETTY XXXIX.-RELIEF XL.-GODFREY AND SEPIA XLI-THE HELPER XLII-THE LEPER XLIII.-MARY AND MR. REDMAIN XLIV.-JOSEPH JASPER XLV.-THE SAPPHIRE XLVL-REPARATION XLVII.-ANOTHER CHANGE XLVIIL-DISSOLUTION XLIX.-THORNWICK L.-WILLIAM AND MARY MARSTON LI.-A HARD TASK LII.-A SUMMONS LIII.-A FRIEND IN NEED LIV.-THE NEXT NIGHT LV.-DISAPPEARANCE LVI.-A CATASTROPHE LVII.-THE END OF THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER I
THE SHOP
It was an evening early in May. The sun was low, and the street was mottled with the shadows of its paving-stones--smooth enough, but far from evenly set. The sky was clear, except for a few clouds in the west, hardly visible in the dazzle of the huge light, which lay among them like a liquid that had broken its vessel, and was pouring over the fragments. The street was almost empty, and the air was chill. The spring was busy, and the summer was at hand; but the wind was blowing from the north.
The street was not a common one; there was interest, that is feature, in the shadowy front of almost each of its old houses. Not a few of them wore, indeed, something like a human expression, the look of having both known and suffered. From many a porch, and many a latticed oriel, a long shadow stretched eastward, like a death flag streaming in a wind unfelt of the body--or a fluttering leaf, ready to yield, and flit away, and add one more to the mound of blackness gathering on the horizon's edge. It was the main street of an old country town, dwindled by the rise of larger and more prosperous places, but holding and exercising a charm none of them would ever gain.
Some of the oldest of its houses, most of them with more than one projecting story, stood about the middle of the street. The central and oldest of these was a draper's shop. The windows of the ground-floor encroached a little on the pavement, to which they descended very close, for the floor of the shop was lower than the street. But, although they had glass on three oriel sides, they were little used for the advertising of the stores within. A few ribbons and gay handkerchiefs, mostly of cotton, for the eyes of the country people on market-days, formed the chief part of their humble show. The door was wide and very low, the upper half of it of glass--old, and bottle-colored; and its threshold was a deep step down into the shop. As a place for purchases it might not to some eyes look promising, but both the ladies and the housekeepers of Testbridge knew that rarely could they do better in London itself than at the shop of Turnbull and Marston, whether variety, quality, or price, was the point in consideration. And, whatever the first impression concerning it, the moment the eyes of a stranger began to grow accustomed to its gloom, the evident size and plenitude of the shop might well suggest a large hope. It was low, indeed, and the walls could therefore