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Title: The Duchess of Wrexe
Her Decline and Death; A Romantic Commentary

Author: Hugh Walpole

Release Date: July 5, 2010 [eBook #33086]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DUCHESS OF WREXE***

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THE DUCHESS OF WREXE

Her Decline and Death

A Romantic Commentary

by

HUGH WALPOLE

Author of "Fortitude," etc.

New York
George H. Doran Company

Copyright, 1914,
By George H. Doran Company

TO
MY MOTHER
A SMALL EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE
BEYOND WORDS

"And we'll have fires out of the Grand Duke's Wood."
_Letter to Maria Gisborne_

THE RISING CITY: I

THE DUCHESS OF WREXE

_NOTE: This is an age of Trilogies and Sequels. The title at the
beginning of this book, "The Rising City: I," may lead nervous readers
to fear yet another attempt in that extended and discursive direction_.

_To reassure them I wish to emphasize this point--that_ The Duchess of
Wrexe _is entirely a novel complete and independent in itself. It is
grouped, with the two stories that will follow it, under the heading of
"The Rising City" because the three novels will be connected in place,
in idea, and in sequence of time. Also certain of the same characters
will appear in all three books. But the novels are not intended as
sequels of one another, nor is "The Rising City" a Trilogy.--H. W._

CONTENTS

BOOK I: THE DUCHESS

I Felix Brun, Dr. Christopher, Rachel Beaminster--They
Are Surveyed by the Portrait

II Rachel

III Lady Adela

IV The Pool

V She Comes Out

VI Fans

VII In the Heart of the House

VIII The Tiger

IX The Golden Cage

X Lizzie and Breton

XI Her Grace's Day

XII Defiance of the Tiger--I

XIII Defiance of the Tiger--II

BOOK II: RACHEL

I The Pool and the Snow

II A Littl