Chapter I: Front Matter

POPULAR NOVELS.

BY

_Mrs. Mary J. Holmes_.

1.— TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE.

2.— ENGLISH ORPHANS.

3.— HOMESTEAD ON THE HILLSIDE.

4.— ‘LENA RIVERS.

5.— MEADOW BROOK.

6.— DORA DEANE.

7.— COUSIN MAUDE.

8.— MARIAN GRAY.

9.— DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT.

10.— HUGH WORTHINGTON.

11.— CAMERON PRIDE.

12.— ROSE MATHER.

13.— ETHELYN’S MISTAKE.

14.— MILLBANK.

15.— EDNA BROWNING.

16.— WEST LAWN.

17.— EDITH LYLE. (_New._)

“Mrs. Holmes is a peculiarly pleasant and fascinating writer. Her books
are always entertaining, and she has the rare faculty of enlisting the
sympathy and affections of her readers, and of holding their attention
to her pages with deep and absorbing interest.”

All published uniform with this volume. Price $1.50 each and sent _free_
by mail, on receipt of price, by

G. W. CARLETON & CO., Publishers,
New York.

Edith Lyle
A Novel.

BY

MRS. MARY J. HOLMES,

AUTHOR OF

TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE—LENA RIVERS—MEADOW BROOK—MARIAN GREY—CAMERON
PRIDE—ETHELYN’S MISTAKE—EDNA BROWNING—WEST LAWN, ETC., ETC.

NEW YORK:

_G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers_.
LONDON: S. LOW & CO.
MDCCCLXXVI.

COPYRIGHT, 1876, BY
DANIEL HOLMES.

JOHN F. TROW & SON,
PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS,
_205–213 East 12th Street_,
NEW YORK.

TO

MY ESTEEMED FRIENDS,

Francis S. Street and Francis S. Smith,

_Editors of the New York Weekly_,

TO WHOM

I AM INDEBTED FOR SO MANY KINDNESSES IN THE PAST,

_I DEDICATE_

THIS STORY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTORY. By Esther Olivia Armstrong 9
I., and Call it Abelard 10
II.— Heloise 14
III.— The Day of the Funeral 21
IV.— The Confession 28
V.— Edith Lyle 36
VI.— The Beginning of a New Life 41
VII.— Eleven Years Later 44
VIII.— Mother and Daughter 51
IX.— Godfrey Schuyler 56
X.— Colonel Schuyler 68
XI.— Edith’s Diary 76
XII.— Edith and her Mother 81
XIII.— Mrs. Barrett’s Lodgers 84
XIV.— Colonel Schuyler Returns 87
XV.— Edith’s Answer 92
XVI.— Breaking the News 101
XVII.— The Bridal 108
XVIII.— At Oakwood after the Bridal 114
XIX.— The Bridal Days 119
XX.— On the Sea 132
XXI.— The Ladies at Schuyler Hill 145
XXII.— The News at Schuyler Hill 149
XXIII.— Mrs. Rogers and Gertie at Hampstead 159
XXIV.— Mrs. Rogers Gets Work 172
XXV.— They Come 175
XXVI.— How they Received her 178
XXVII.— After Dinner 189
XXVIII.— One Day in Hampstead 198
XXIX.— The First Sunday in Hampstead 209
XXX.— Company at Schuyler Hill 217
XXXI.— The Church Sociable 222
XXXII.— Mrs. Rogers Speaks her Mind 230
XXXIII.— The New Life at the Hill 234
XXXIV.— Mary Rogers 240
XXXV.— Gertie at the Hill 246
XXXVI.— After Four Years 256
XXXVII.— The Travellers 261
XXXVIII.— Colonel Schuyler Interviews Godfrey 275
XXXIX.— Colonel Schuyler Interviews Gertie 282
XL.— Robert Macpherson Interviews Gertie 288
XLI.— A few Details of that Summer in Hampstead 293
XLII.— The Sail on the River 297
XLIII.— The Course of Love does not Run Smooth 304
XLIV.— Godfrey and Gertie 307
XLV.— Robert Macpherson and Colonel Schuyler 313
XLVI.— Godfrey and his Father 315
XLVII.— Waiting 318
XLVIII.— Giving in Marriage 320
XLIX.— Mrs. Doctor Barrett 323
L.— The Storm Gathering 330
LI.— The Storm Bursts 333
LII.— The Battle between Life and Death 343
LIII.— Colonel Schuyler and the Secret 348
LIV.— Husband and Wife 356
LV.— The Search in London 364
LVI.— Gertie 372
LVII.— In New York 375
LVIII.— Gertie and the Story 384
LIX.— The Story in Hampstead 391
LX.— Edith and Gertie 397
LXI.— Godfrey and Gertie 402
LXII.— The Wedding 408
LXIII.— Mary Rogers’ Letter to Edith 411
LXIV., and Last 419

EDITH LYLE.

INTRODUCTORY.
BY ESTHER OLIVIA ARMSTRONG.

As I sit here, this bright autumnal morning, and from the window of my room look out upon the river winding its way to the sea, there falls upon my ears the merry chime of bells from the tower of the old gray church,—wedding-bells they are,—and their echoes float across the water, and up the mountain side, and then die away among the wooded cliffs beyond, where the foliage has just been touched with the October frost, and has here and there a gay trimming of scarlet and gold on its summer dress of green. There is a wedding at St. Luke’s to-day, and the bridal party is passing now, and I kiss my hand to the beautiful bride, who flashes a smile at me from those wonderful eyes of hers,—eyes so like in expression to those of the elder lady who sits beside her, and but for whom that wedding at St. Luke’s would never have been. They are gone now from my sight, and only the pealing of the bells is heard in the quiet street, and as I muse upon the strange event which has made the people of our town wild with excitement and curiosity, and of which I, perhaps, know quite as much as any one, I ask myself, “Why not write out the story, suppressing names, and dates, and localities, and give it to the world, as a proof that real life is sometimes stranger than fiction.”

And so, just as the sound of the marriage-bells dies away among the distant hills, I take my pen to begin a tale which will have in it no part of my own life, save as it was sometimes interwoven with the lives of those whose history I write. _I_ am only Esther Armstrong, the village schoolmistress, a plain, old-fashioned woman of thirty-five, with no incident whatever in my life worth recording; and so, with no thought that any one will accuse me of egotism or conceit, I write down