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The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories

Chapter 92: MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS.
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A compact collection of thirteen short stories that moves between eerie, supernatural incidents and sharp social comedies. Several pieces revolve around mysteries of inheritance, hidden treasure, and unexpected revelations; others dwell on uncanny encounters and psychological unease. The tone alternates from mordant wit to deliberate gloom, often ending in ironic or twist conclusions and sustained character sketches. The narratives employ economical, frequently witty prose to examine desire, fate, and moral ambiguity across both domestic scenes and adventurous situations.

The County Families of the United Kingdom. Containing Notices of the Descent, Birth, Marriage, Education, &c., of more than 12,000 distinguished Heads of Families, their Heirs Apparent or Presumptive, the Offices they hold or have held, their Town and Country Addresses, Clubs, &c. Twenty-sixth Annual Edition, for 1886, cloth gilt, 50s.

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Popular Stories by the Best Authors. Library Editions, many Illustrated, crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each.

BY MRS. ALEXANDER.

Maid, Wife, or Widow?

BY GRANT ALLEN.

Philistia.

BY BASIL.

A Drawn Game.
"The Wearing of the Green."

BY W. BESANT & JAMES RICE.

Ready-Money Mortiboy.
My Little Girl.
The Case of Mr. Lucraft.
This Son of Vulcan.
With Harp and Crown.
The Golden Butterfly.
By Celia's Arbour.
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'Twas In Trafalgar's Bay.
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The Chaplain of the Fleet.

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Dorothy Forster.
Uncle Jack.

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Love Me for Ever.
Annan Water.
Matt.
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Foxglove Manor.
The Master of the Mine.

BY HALL CAINE.

The Shadow of a Crime.

BY MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON.

Deceivers Ever.
Juliet's Guardian.

BY MORTIMER COLLINS.

Sweet Anne Page.
Transmigration.
From Midnight to Midnight.

MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS.

Blacksmith and Scholar.
The Village Comedy.
You Play me False.

BY WILKIE COLLINS.

Antonina.
Basil.
Hide and Seek.
The Dead Secret.
Queen of Hearts.
My Miscellanies.
Woman In White.
The Moonstone.
Man and Wife.
Poor Miss Finch.
Miss or Mrs.?
New Magdalen.
The Frozen Deep.
The Law and the Lady.
The Two Destinies.
Haunted Hotel.
The Fallen Leaves.
Jezebel's Daughter.
The Black Robe.
Heart and Science.
I Say No.

BY DUTTON COOK.

Paul Foster's Daughter.

BY WILLIAM CYPLES.

Hearts of Gold.

BY ALPHONSE DAUDET.

The Evangelist; or, Port Salvation.

BY JAMES DE MILLE.

A Castle In Spain.

BY J. LEITH DERWENT.

Our Lady of Tears.
Circe's Lovers.

BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.

Felicia.
Kitty.

BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES.

Archie Lovell.

BY R. E. FRANCILLON.

Queen Cophetua.
One by One.
A Real Queen.

Prefaced by Sir BARTLE FRERE.

Pandurang Hari.

BY EDWARD GARRETT.

The Capel Girls.

BY CHARLES GIBBON.

Robin Gray.
For Lack of Gold.
What will the World Say?
In Honour Bound.
Queen of the Meadow.
The Flower of the Forest.
A Heart's Problem.
The Braes of Yarrow.
The Golden Shaft.
Fancy Free.
A Hard Knot.
Of High Degree.
Loving a Dream.
Fancy Free.

BY THOMAS HARDY.

Under the Greenwood Tree.

BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.

Garth.
Ellice Quentin.
Sebastian Strome.
Prince Saroni's Wife.
Dust.
Fortune's Fool.
Beatrix Randolph.
Miss Cadogna.
Love—or a Name.

BY SIR A. HELPS.

Ivan de Biron.

BY MRS. CASHEL HOEY.

The Lover's Creed.

BY MRS. ALFRED HUNT.

Thornicroft's Model.
The Leaden Casket.
Self-Condemned.

BY JEAN INGELOW.

Fated to be Free.

BY HARRIETT JAY.

The Queen of Connaught.

BY HENRY KINGSLEY.

Number Seventeen.

BY E. LYNN LINTON.

Patricia Kemball.
Atonement of Leam Dundas.
The World Well Lost.
Under which Lord?
With a Silken Thread.
The Rebel of the Family.
"My Love!"
Ione.

BY HENRY W. LUCY.

Gideon Fleyce.

BY JUSTIN McCARTHY, M.P.

The Waterdale Neighbours.
My Enemy's Daughter.
Linley Rochford.
A Fair Saxon.
Dear Lady Disdain.
Miss Misanthrope.
Donna Quixote.
The Comet of a Season.
Maid of Athens.
Camiola.

BY GEORGE MACDONALD.

Paul Faber, Surgeon.
Thomas Wingfold, Curate.

BY MRS. MACDONELL.

Quaker Cousins.

BY FLORENCE MARRYAT.

Open! Sesame!
Written In Fire.

BY D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.

Life's Atonement.
Joseph's Coat.
A Model Father.
Coals of Fire.
Val Strange.
Hearts.
By the Gate of the Sea.
The Way of the World.
A Bit of Human Nature.
First Person Singular.
Cynic Fortune.

BY MRS. OLIPHANT.

Whiteladies.

BY MARGARET A. PAUL.

Gentle and Simple.

BY JAMES PAYN.

Lost Sir Massingberd.
Best of Husbands.
Halves.
Walter's Word.
What He Cost Her.
Less Black than We're Painted.
By Proxy.
High Spirits.
Under One Roof.
Carlyon's Year.
A Confidential Agent.
From Exile.
A Grape from a Thorn.
For Cash Only.
Some Private Views.
Kit: A Memory.
The Canon's Ward.
The Talk of the Town.

BY E. C. PRICE.

Valentina.
The Foreigners.
Mrs. Lancaster's Rival.

BY CHARLES READE.

It Is Never Too Late to Mend.
Hard Cash.
Peg Woffington.
Christie Johnstone.
Griffith Gaunt.
Foul Play.
The Double Marriage.
Love Me Little, Love Me Long.
The Cloister and the Hearth.
The Course of True Love.
The Autobiography of a Thief.
Put Yourself In His Place.
A Terrible Temptation.
The Wandering Heir.
A Woman-Hater.
A Simpleton.
Readiana.
Singleheart and Doubleface.
The Jilt.
Good Stories of Men and other Animals.

BY MRS. J. H. RIDDELL.

Her Mother's Darling.
Prince of Wales's Garden-Party.
Weird Stories.

BY F. W. ROBINSON.

Women are Strange.
The Hands of Justice.

BY JOHN SAUNDERS.

Bound to the Wheel.
Guy Waterman.
Two Dreamers.
One Against the World.
The Lion In the Path.

BY KATHARINE SAUNDERS.

Joan Merryweather.
Margaret and Elizabeth.
Gideon's Rock.
The High Mills.
Heart Salvage.
Sebastian.

BY T. W. SPEIGHT.

The Mysteries of Heron Dyke.

BY R. A. STERNDALE.

The Afghan Knife.

BY BERTHA THOMAS.

Proud Maisie.
Cressida.
The Violin-Player.

BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE.

The Way we Live Now.
Frau Frohmann.
Marion Fay.
Kept In the Dark.
Mr. Scarborough's Family.
The Land-Leaguers.

BY FRANCES E. TROLLOPE.

Like Ships upon the Sea.
Anne Furness.
Mabel's Progress.

BY IVAN TURGENIEFF, &c.

Stories from Foreign Novelists.

BY SARAH TYTLER.

What She Came Through.
The Bride's Pass.
Saint Mungo's City.
Beauty and the Beast.
Noblesse Oblige.
Citoyenne Jacqueline.
The Huguenot Family.
Lady Bell.

BY C. C. FRASER-TYTLER.

Mistress Judith.

BY J. S. WINTER.

Regimental Legends.

CHEAP EDITIONS OF POPULAR NOVELS.

Post 8vo, illustrated boards, 2s. each.

BY EDMOND ABOUT.

The Fellah.

BY HAMILTON AÏDÉ.

Carr of Carrlyon.
Confidences.

BY MRS. ALEXANDER.

Maid, Wife, or Widow?
Valerie's Fate.

BY GRANT ALLEN.

Strange Storlee.
Philistia.

BY BASIL.

A Drawn Game.
"The Wearing of the Green."

BY SHELSLEY BEAUCHAMP.

Grantley Grange.

BY W. BESANT & JAMBS RICE.

Ready-Money Mortiboy.
With Harp and Crown.
This Son of Vulcan.
My Little Girl.
The Case of Mr. Lucraft.
The Golden Butterfly.
By Celia's Arbour.
The Monks of Thelema.
'Twas In Trafalgar's Bay.
The Seamy Side.
The Ten Years' Tenant.
The Chaplain of the Fleet.

BY WALTER BESANT.

All Sorts and Conditions of Men.
The Captains' Room.
All In a Garden Fair.
Dorothy Forster.
Uncle Jack.

BY FREDERICK BOYLE.

Camp Notes.
Savage Life.
Chronicles of No-man's Land.

BY BRET HARTE.

An Heiress of Red Dog.
The Luck of Roaring Camp.
Californian Stories.
Gabriel Conroy.
Flip.
Maruja.

BY ROBERT BUCHANAN.

The Shadow of the Sword.
A Child of Nature.
God and the Man.
Love Me for Ever.
Foxglove Manor.
The Martyrdom of Madeline.
Annan Water.
The New Abelard.
Matt.

BY MRS. BURNETT.

Surly Tim.

BY HALL CAINE.

The Shadow of a Crime.

BY MRS. LOVETT CAMERON.

Deceivers Ever.
Juliet's Guardian.

BY MACLAREN COBBAN.

The Cure of Souls.

BY C. ALLSTON COLLINS.

The Bar Sinister.

BY WILKIE COLLINS.

Antonina.
Basil.
Hide and Seek.
The Dead Secret.
Queen of Hearts.
My Miscellanies.
Woman In White.
The Moonstone.
Man and Wife.
Poor Miss Finch.
Miss or Mrs.?
New Magdalen.
The Frozen Deep.
Law and the Lady.
The Two Destinies.
Haunted Hotel.
The Fallen Leaves.
Jezebel's Daughter.
The Black Robe.
Heart and Science.
"I Say No."

BY MORTIMER COLLINS.

Sweet Anne Page.
Transmigration.
From Midnight to Midnight.
A Fight with Fortune.

MORTIMER & FRANCES COLLINS.

Sweet and Twenty.
Frances.
Blacksmith and Scholar.
The Village Comedy.
You Play me False.

BY DUTTON COOK.

Leo.
Paul Foster's Daughter.

BY C. EGBERT CRADDOCK.

The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains.

BY WILLIAM CYPLES.

Hearts of Gold.

BY ALPHONSE DAUDET.

The Evangelist; or, Port Salvation.

BY JAMES DE MILLE.

A Castle In Spain.

BY J. LEITH DERWENT.

Our Lady of Tears.
Circe's Lovers.

BY CHARLES DICKENS.

Sketches by Boz.
Pickwick Papers.
Oliver Twist.
Nicholas Nickleby.

BY MRS. ANNIE EDWARDES.

A Point of Honour.
Archie Lovell.

BY M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.

Felicia.
Kitty.

BY EDWARD EGGLESTON.

Roxy.

BY PERCY FITZGERALD.

Bella Donna.
Never Forgotten.
The Second Mrs. Tillotson.
Polly.
Seventy-five Brooke Street.
The Lady of Brantome.

BY ALBANY DE FONBLANQUE.

Filthy Lucre.

BY R. E. FRANCILLON.

Olympia.
One by One.
Queen Cophetua.
A Real Queen.

Prefaced by Sir H. BARTLE FRERE.

Pandurang Hari.

BY HAIN FRISWELL.

One of Two.

BY EDWARD GARRETT.

The Capel Girls.

BY CHARLES GIBBON.

Robin Gray.
For Lack of Gold.
What will the World Say?
In Honour Bound.
In Love and War.
For the King.
In Pastures Green.
Queen of the Meadow.
The Flower of the Forest.
A Heart's Problem.
The Braes of Yarrow.
The Golden Shaft.
Of High Degree.
Fancy Free.
By Mead and Stream.

BY WILLIAM GILBERT.

Dr. Austin's Guests.
The Wizard of the Mountain.
James Duke.

BY JAMES GREENWOOD.