There and Back

There and Back [with accents]

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Title: There & Back
Author: George MacDonald
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8879] [This file was first posted on August 19, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THERE & BACK
BY
GEORGE MACDONALD

CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. FATHER, CHILD, AND NURSE II. STEPMOTHER AND NURSE III. THE FLIGHT IV. THE BOOKBINDER AND HIS PUPIL V. THE MANSONS VI. SIMON ARMOUR VII. COMPARISONS VIII. A LOST SHOE IX. A HOLIDAY X. THE LIBRARY XI. ALICE XII. MORTGRANGE XIII. THE BEECH-TREE XIV. AGAIN THE LIBRARY XV. BARBARA WYLDER XVI. BARBARA AND RICHARD XVII. BARBARA AND OTHERS XVIII. MRS. WYLDER XIX. MRS. WYLDER AND BARBARA XX. BARBARA AND HER CRITICS XXI. THE PARSON'S PARABLE XXII. THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER XXIII. A HUMAN GADFLY XXIV. RICHARD AND WINGFOLD XXV. WINGFOLD AND HIS WIFE XXVI. RICHARD AND ALICE XXVII. A SISTER XXVIII. BARBARA AND LADY ANN XXIX. ALICE AND BARBARA XXX. BARBARA THINKS XXXI. WINGFOLD AND BARBARA XXXII. THE SHOEING OF MISS BROWN XXXIII. RICHARD AND VIXEN XXXIV. BARBARA'S DUTY XXXV. THE PARSON'S COUNSEL XXXVI. LADY ANN MEDITATES XXXVII. LADY ANN AND RICHARD XXXVIII. RICHARD AND ARTHUR XXXIX. MR., MRS., AND MISS WYLDER XL. IN LONDON XLI. NATURE AND SUPERNATURE XLII. YET A LOWER DEEP XLIII. TO BE REDEEMED, ONE MUST REDEEM XLIV. A DOOR OPENED IN HEAVEN XLV. THE CARRIAGE XLVI. RICHARD'S DILEMMA XLVII. THE DOORS OF HARMONY AND DEATH XLVIII. DEATH THE DELIVERER XLIX. THE CAVE IN THE FIRE L. DUCK-FISTS LI. BARONET AND BLACKSMITH LII. UNCLE-FATHER AND AUNT-MOTHER LIII. MORNING LIV. BARBARA AT HOME LV. MISS BROWN LVI. WINGFOLD AND BARBARA LVII. THE BARONET'S WILL LVIII. THE HEIR LIX. WINGFOLD AND ARTHUR MANSON LX. RICHARD AND HIS FAMILY LXI. HEART TO HEART LXII. THE QUARREL LXIII. BARONET AND BLACKSMITH LXIV. THE BARONET'S FUNERAL LXV. THE PACKET LXVI. BARBARA'S DREAM

_NOTE.
Some of the readers of this tale will be glad to know that the passage with which it ends is a real dream; and that, with but three or four changes almost too slight to require acknowledging, I have given it word for word as the friend to whom it came set it down for me._

CHAPTER I
.
_FATHER, CHILD, AND NURSE._
It would be but stirring a muddy pool to inquire--not what motives induced, but what forces compelled sir Wilton Lestrange to marry a woman nobody knew. It is enough to say that these forces were mainly ignoble, as manifested by their intermittent character and final cessation. The _m��salliance_ occasioned not a little surprise, and quite as much annoyance, among the county families,--failing, however, to remind any that certain of their own grandmothers had been no better known to the small world than lady Lestrange. It caused yet more surprise, though less annoyance, in the clubs to which sir Wilton had hitherto been indebted for help to forget his duties: they set him down as a greater idiot than his friends had hitherto imagined him. For had he not been dragged to the altar by a woman whose manners and breeding were hardly on the level of a villa in St. John's Wood? Did any one know whence she sprang, or even the name which sir Wilton had displaced with his own? But sir Wilton himself was not proud of his lady; and if the thing had been any business of theirs, it would have made no difference to him; he would none the less have let them pine in their ignorance. Did not his mother, a lady less dignified than eccentric, out of pure curiosity beg enlightenment concerning her origin, and receive for answer from the high-minded baronet, "Madam, the woman is my wife!"--after which the prudent dowager asked no more questions, but treated her daughter-in-law with neither better nor worse than civility. Sir Wilton, in fact, soon came to owe his wife a grudge that he had married her, and none the less