The Shuttle | Page 3

this "Small
Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois
Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each date you
prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?

The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois Benedictine
College".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

Scanned by Charles Keller with OmniPage Professional OCR software
donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. Contact Mike Lough


THE SHUTTLE
BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
THE WEAVING OF THE SHUTTLE II. A LACK OF PERCEPTION
III. YOUNG LADY ANSTRUTHERS IV. A MISTAKE OF THE
POSTBOY'S V. ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC VI. AN
UNFAIR ENDOWMENT VII. ON BOARD THE "MERIDIANA"
VIII. THE SECOND-CLASS PASSENGER IX. LADY JANE GREY
X. "IS LADY ANSTRUTHERS AT HOME?" XI. "I THOUGHT YOU
HAD ALL FORGOTTEN" XII. UGHTRED XIII. ONE OF THE NEW
YORK DRESSES XIV. IN THE GARDENS XV. THE FIRST MAN
XVI. THE PARTICULAR INCIDENT XVII. TOWNLINSON &
SHEPPARD XVIII. THE FIFTEENTH EARL OF MOUNT
DUNSTAN XIX. SPRING IN BOND STREET XX. THINGS OCCUR
IN STORNHAM VILLAGE XXI. KEDGERS XXII. ONE OF MR.
VANDERPOEL'S LETTERS XXIII. INTRODUCING G. SELDEN
XXIV. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STORNHAM XXV. "WE
BEGAN TO MARRY THEM, MY GOOD FELLOW!" XXVI.

"WHAT IT MUST BE TO BE YOU--JUST YOU!" XXVII. LIFE
XXVIII. SETTING THEM THINKING XXIX. THE THREAD OF G.
SELDEN XXX. A RETURN XXXI. NO, SHE WOULD NOT XXXII.
A GREAT BALL XXXIII. FOR LADY JANE XXXIV. RED
GODWYN XXXV. THE TIDAL WAVE XXXVI. BY THE
ROADSIDE EVERYWHERE XXXVII. CLOSED CORRIDORS
XXXVIII. AT SHANDY'S XXXIX. ON THE MARSHES XL.
"DON'T GO ON WITH THIS" XLI. SHE WOULD DO SOMETHING
XLII. IN THE BALLROOM XLIII. HIS CHANCE XLIV. A
FOOTSTEP XLV. THE PASSING BELL XLVI. LISTENING XLVII.
"I HAVE NO WORD OR LOOK TO REMEMBER" XLVIII. THE
MOMENT XLIX. AT STORNHAM AND AT BROADMORLANDS
L. THE PRIMEVAL THING

THE SHUTTLE

CHAPTER I
THE WEAVING OF THE SHUTTLE
No man knew when the Shuttle began its slow and heavy weaving from
shore to shore, that it was held and guided by the great hand of Fate.
Fate alone saw the meaning of the web it wove, the might of it, and its
place in the making of a world's history. Men thought but little of either
web or weaving, calling them by other names and lighter ones, for the
time unconscious of the strength of the thread thrown across thousands
of miles of leaping, heaving, grey or blue ocean.
Fate and Life planned the weaving, and it seemed mere circumstance
which guided the Shuttle to and fro between two worlds divided by a
gulf broader and deeper than the thousands of miles of salt, fierce
sea--the gulf of a bitter quarrel deepened by hatred and the shedding of
brothers' blood. Between the two worlds of East and West there was no
will to draw nearer. Each held apart. Those who had rebelled against
that which their souls called tyranny, having struggled madly and shed
blood in tearing themselves free, turned stern backs upon their
unconquered enemies, broke all cords that bound them to the past,

flinging off ties of name, kinship and rank, beginning with fierce
disdain a new life.
Those who, being rebelled against, found the rebels too passionate in
their determination and too desperate in their defence of their
strongholds to be less than unconquerable, sailed back haughtily to the
world which seemed so far the greater power. Plunging into new battles,
they added new conquests and splendour to their land, looking back
with something of contempt to the half-savage West left to build its
own civilisation without other aid than the strength of its own strong
right hand and strong uncultured brain.
But while the two worlds held apart, the Shuttle, weaving slowly in the
great hand of Fate, drew them closer and held them firm, each of them
all unknowing for many a year, that what had at first been mere threads
of gossamer, was forming a web whose strength in time none could
compute, whose severance could be accomplished but by tragedy and
convulsion.
The weaving was but in its early and slow-moving years when this
story opens. Steamers crossed and recrossed the Atlantic, but they
accomplished the journey at leisure and with