The Project Gutenberg EBook of Frances Kane's Fortune, by L. T. Meade

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Title: Frances Kane's Fortune

Author: L. T. Meade

Release Date: April 22, 2009 [EBook #28589]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANCES KANE'S FORTUNE ***

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FRANCES KANE'S FORTUNE.

BY

L. T. MEADE,

AUTHOR OF "HOW IT ALL CAME ROUND," "WATER GIPSIES," ETC.

CHICAGO:

M. A. DONOHUE & CO.

* * * * *

Contents

FRANCES KANE'S FORTUNE.
MONSIEUR THE VISCOUNT'S FRIEND.
THE YEW-LANE GHOSTS.

* * * * *

FRANCES KANE'S FORTUNE.

CHAPTER I.

THE LETTER.

It was a very sunny June day, and a girl was pacing up and down a
sheltered path in an old-fashioned garden. She walked slowly along the
narrow graveled walk, now and then glancing at the carefully trimmed
flowers of an elaborate ribbon border at her right, and stopping for an
instant to note the promise of fruit on some well-laden peach and
pear-trees. The hot sun was pouring down almost vertical rays on her
uncovered head, but she was either impervious to its power, or, like a
salamander, she rejoiced in its fierce noonday heat.

"We have a good promise of peaches and pears," she said to herself; "I
will see that they are sold this year. We will just keep a few for my
father to eat, but the rest shall go. It is a pity Watkins spends so
much time over the ribbon border; it does not pay, and it uses up so
many of our bedding plants."

She frowned slightly as she said these last words, and put up her hand
to shade her face from the sun, as though for the first time she noticed
its dazzling light and heat.

"Now I will go and look to the cabbages," she said, continuing her
meditations aloud. "And those early pease ought to be fit for pulling
now. Oh! is that you, Watkins? Were you calling me? I wa