Me and Nobbles

'Me and Nobbles', by Amy Le
Feuvre

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Title: 'Me and Nobbles'
Author: Amy Le Feuvre
Release Date: August 10, 2007 [EBook #22290]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'ME AND
NOBBLES' ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: NOBBLES WAS TIGHTLY GRASPED IN HIS
HAND.]

'Me and Nobbles'
By
AMY LE FEUVRE

Author of 'Probable Sons,' 'Teddy's Button,' 'Jill's Red Bag,' 'Odd,' 'His
Little Daughter,' etc.

London
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY
4 Beuverie Street and 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, E.C. 4.
1908

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PROLOGUE
I.--'MASTER MORTIMER' II.--'HE MAY COME TO-MORROW!'
III.--THE BEAUTIFUL PICTURE IV.--HIS NEW FRIEND
V.--NOBBLES' MISFORTUNE VI.--HIS FATHER VII.--HIS NEW
HOME VIII.--A LETTER FROM ABROAD IX.--'SHE HAS LEFT
US!' X.--'WE'RE GOING TO FIND A GOVERNESS! XI.--BOBBY'S
VISITOR XII.--'A DELIGHTFUL TIME XIII.--THE WEDDING
XIV.--'NEARLY DROWNED' XV.--THE OLD HOUSE AGAIN

'ME AND NOBBLES.'

PROLOGUE.
[To be skipped by children if they like.]
It was a very silent old house.
Outside, the front windows stared gravely down upon the tidy drive
with its rhododendron shrubberies, the well-kept lawn with the
triangular beds, and the belt of gloomy fir trees edging the high brick
wall that ran along the public road. The windows were always draped
and curtained, and opened one foot at the top with monotonous
regularity. No one was ever seen leaning out of them, or even pushing
back the curtains to widen their view. There was a broad flight of steps,
and a ponderous door which, when opened, disclosed a long hall, at the
end of which was a gaily flowered conservatory. Instinct made people
tread gently upon the thick Turkey rugs that were laid upon the
polished floor; there was a stillness in the house that seemed to chill
one. If you peeped into the big dining-room, the portraits upon the wall
eyed you with disapproval; the table, which was always laid with
snowy-white cloth and shining silver, seemed severely austere and
formal; the high back chairs and the massive sideboards bade you
respect their age.
The drawing-room was quite as awe-inspiring, for the blinds were
nearly always down, and it had a musty unused scent telling you that its
grandeur was not for daily use. The library was gloomier still. Its
windows were of stained glass; books of the dingiest hue surrounded
you; they lined the walls; and the furniture and carpet matched them in
tone. Ghostly busts on pedestals, scientific machines, and a huge
geographical and astronomical globe added to its gloom. The sun had a
way of only hastily shining in when he could not help himself, and he
left it till the last moment just before he went to bed. He was not fond
of that room, and there was no one in the house that was.
Then there was the morning room, and this was where old Mrs. Egerton
spent most of her day. She was a tall severe old lady with no sense of
humour and a very strong will. She spent an hour after breakfast with
her cook, for housekeeping was her hobby; then she sat at her table

writing letters and doing her accounts till luncheon, after which she
always went for a drive. In the evening after dinner she read the paper
or some solid book, knitted, and retired early to bed. Her daughter,
Miss Anna Egerton, was very like her, only she was seldom seen
indoors. She was full of good works, and was never idle, for she had
more business than she could possibly get through, and her days were
so crowded that meals seemed quite an effort. The man of the house,
Mrs. Egerton's son, was also always out, and when at home spent his
leisure moments in his smoking-room. London claimed most of his
time, for he was in a government office, and went to and fro by train,
thinking nothing of the hours spent twice a day in a railway carriage.
'A very dull house indeed,' a lady visitor thought at the end of her first
day there; and yet, in spite of its quietness, there were just a few
indications of another element that puzzled her.
Once she heard a patter of childish feet along the corridor past her door,
but that was very early in the morning before she was properly awake,
so she thought she must be dreaming. Then, in a secluded path in the
shrubberies, she came across a child's glove and a