Chapter I: Front Matter

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OLD KENSINGTON

BY MISS THACKERAY

LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1908.

[_All rights reserved_]

T'is life whereof our nerves are scant, Oh! life, not death, for which we pant, More life and fuller that I want.

Alfred Tennyson.

A DEDICATION

_TO SOME NEW FRIENDS._

Sometimes new friends meet one along the mid-way of life, and come forward with sweet unknown faces and with looks that seem strangely familiar to greet us.

To some of these new friends I must dedicate my story. It was begun ten years ago, and is older than my god-daughter Margie herself, who is the oldest among them. She is playing with her sister and her little cousins in the sunny Eton nurseries. Harry has a crown on. Annie is a queen who flies on errands. Ada and Lilly are Court ladies.

My neighbour Dolly and the little Dorotheas, however, have a first right to a presentation copy. It is true that the little ones cannot read, but they need not regret it; for Margie will take them on her knee and show them the pictures, and Georgie and Stella and Molly shall stand round too, and dark-eyed little Margaret can tell them her own sweet little stories, while Francis chimes in from the floor. Eleanor cannot talk, but she can sing; and so can our Laura at home and her song is her own; a sweet home song; the song of all children to those who love them. It tells of the past, and one day brings it back without a pang; it tells of a future, not remorselessly strange and chill and unknown, but bound to us by a thousand hopes and loving thoughts--a kingdom-come for us all, not of strangers, but of little children. And meanwhile Laura, measures the present with her soft little fingers as she beats time upon her mother's hand to her own vague music.

8 Southwell Gardens: _March 20, 1873_

CONTENTS.

I. BRICKS AND IVY

II. DUTCH TILES

III. TO OLD STREET BY THE LANES

IV. AN AFTERNOON AT PENFOLD'S

V. STEEL PENS AND GOOSE QUILLS

VI. DOWNSTAIRS IN THE DARK

VII. CLOUD-CAPPED TOWERS AND GORGEOUS PALACES

VIII. IMMORTELLES

IX. THE BOW-WINDOWED HOUSE

X. A SNOW GARDEN

XI. RABAN MEETS THE SHABBY ANGEL

XII. DOROTHEA BY FIRELIGHT

XIII. LITTLE BROTHER AND LITTLE SISTER

XIV. RAG DOLLS

XV. GEORGE'S TUNES

XVI. A WALKING PARTY

XVII. 'INNER LIFE'

XVIII. AN AUTUMN MORNING

XIX. KENSINGTON PALACE CHAPEL

XX. RHODA TO DOLLY

XXI. CINDERS

XXII. MRS. PALMER

XXIII. THE TERRACE AT ALL SAINTS' COLLEGE

XXIV. ROSES HAVE THORNS, AND SILVER FOUNTAINS MUD

XXV. GOOD-NIGHT

XXVI. GOOD-MORNING

XXVII. LOVE LANE FROM KENSINGTON TO FULHAM

XXVIII. UNBORN TO-MORROW AND DEAD YESTERDAY

XXIX. UNDER THE GREAT DOME

XXX. WAVE OR FLAME

XXXI. A BOAT UPON THE WATER

XXXII. TRUST ME

XXXIII. CIRCUMSTANCE

XXXIV. WHITE ROSES

XXXV. 'ONLY GEORGE'

XXXVI. THE SLOW SAD HOURS

XXXVII. IN AN EMPTY ROOM

XXXVIII. THE POLLARD-TREES

XXXIX. THUS FAR THE MILES ARE MEASURED FROM THY FRIEND

XL. UNDER THE CLOCK-TOWER

XLI. I BRING YOU THREE LETTERS--I PRAY YOU READ ONE

XLII. RACHEL

XLIII. CRAGS AND FRESH AIR

XLIV. WHITE WITH GAZING

XLV. WHAT AUNT SARAH LEFT FOR DOLLY

XLVI. THE SORROWFUL MESSAGE

XLVII. FROM HEART OF VERY HEART

XLVIII. AN EXPLANATION

XLIX. SHEEP-SHEARING

L. TEMPERED WINDS

LI. 'SING HOARSE, WITH TEARS BETWEEN'

LII. AN ANDANTE OF HAYDN'S

LIII. THAT THOU ART BLAMED SHALL NOT BE THY DEFECT

LIV. HOLY ST. FRANCIS, WHAT A CHANGE IS HERE!

LV. SEE YOU NOT SOMETHING BESIDE MASONRY?

LVI. THE PLAY IS PLAYED, THE CURTAIN DROPS

OLD KENSINGTON.