Project Gutenberg's The Delectable Duchy, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

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Title: The Delectable Duchy

Author: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

Release Date: May 6, 2004 [EBook #12277]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE DELECTABLE DUCHY

BY Q

1906

SHORT STORY

To

ALFRED PARSONS

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE
THE SPINSTER'S MAYING
DAPHNIS
WHEN THE SAP ROSE
THE PAUPERS
CUCKOO VALLEY RAILWAY
THE CONSPIRACY ABOARD THE "MIDAS"
LEGENDS OF ST. PIRAN.
I St. Piran: the Millstone
II St. Piran: the Visitation
IN THE TRAIN.
I. Punch's Understudy
II. A Corrected Contempt
WOON GATE
FROM A COTTAGE IN GANTICK.
I. The Mourner's Horse
II. Silhouettes
THE DRAWN BLIND
A GOLDEN WEDDING
SCHOOL FRIENDS
PARENTS AND CHILDREN.
I. The Family Bible
II. Boanerges
TWO MONUMENTS
EGG-STEALING
SEVEN-AN'-SIX
THE REGENT'S WAGER
LOVE OF NAOMI
THE PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA'S POST-BAG.
I. An Interruption
II. The Great Fire on Freethy's Quay

PROLOGUE.

A week ago, my friend the Journalist wrote to remind me that once upon
a time I had offered him a bed in my cottage at Troy and promised to
show him the beauties of the place. He was about (he said) to give
himself a fortnight's holiday, and had some notion of using that time
to learn what Cornwall was like. He could spare but one day for Troy,
and hardly looked to exhaust its attractions; nevertheless, if my
promise held good.... By anticipation he spoke of my home as a "nook."
Its windows look down upon a harbour, wherein, day by day, vessels
of every nation and men of large experience are for ever going and
coming; and beyond the harbour, upon leagues of open sea, highway
of the vastest traffic in the world: whereas from his own far more
expensive house my friend sees only a dirty laurel-bush, a high green
fence, and the upper half of a suburban lamp post. Yet he is convinced
that I dwell in a nook.

I answered his letter, warmly repeating the invitation; and last week
he arrived. The change had b