HEIR***


E-text prepared by Brenda Lewis, woodie4, and the Project Gutenberg Online
Distributed Proofreading Canada Team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net) from page
images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illuminations.
      See 33664-h.htm or 33664-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33664/33664-h/33664-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33664/33664-h.zip)


      Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
      http://www.archive.org/details/norinesrevengean00flemiala





NORINE'S REVENGE,

and

SIR NOEL'S HEIR.

by

MAY AGNES FLEMING

       *       *       *       *       *

POPULAR NOVELS.

BY MAY AGNES FLEMING.


  1.--GUY EARLSCOURT'S WIFE.
  2.--A WONDERFUL WOMAN.
  3.--A TERRIBLE SECRET.
  4.--NORINE'S REVENGE.
  5.--A MAD MARRIAGE.
  6.--ONE NIGHT'S MYSTERY.
  7.--KATE DANTON.
  8.--SILENT AND TRUE.
  9.--HEIR OF CHARLTON.
  10.--CARRIED BY STORM.
  11.--LOST FOR A WOMAN.
  12.--A WIFE'S TRAGEDY.
  13.--A CHANGED HEART.
  14.--PRIDE AND PASSION.
  15.--SHARING HER CRIME.
  16.--A WRONGED WIFE.
  17.--MAUDE PERCY'S SECRET.
  18.--THE ACTRESS' DAUGHTER (_New_).

  "Mrs. Fleming's stories are growing more and more popular every
  day. Their delineations of character, life-like conversations,
  flashes of wit, constantly varying scenes, and deeply interesting
  plots, combine to place their author in the very first rank of
  Modern Novelists."

  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.

       *       *       *       *       *


NORINE'S REVENGE,

and

SIR NOEL'S HEIR.

by

MAY AGNES FLEMING,

Author of
"Guy Earlscourt's Wife," "A Wonderful Woman,"
"A Terrible Secret," "A Mad Marriage," Etc.







New York:
G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers,
London: S. Low, Son & Co.,
MDCCCLXXXVI.

Copyright,
C. W. Carleton & Co.
1875.

Trow's
Printing and Bookbinding Company,
205-213 East 12th St.,
New York.




CONTENTS.

  NORINE'S REVENGE.


                           CHAPTER.                     PAGE.

      I.--Two Black Eyes and their Work                    7

     II.--A Wise Man's Folly                              18

    III.--Mr. Laurence Thorndyke                          35

     IV.--The Lawyer's Warning                            42

      V.--"I will be your Wife"                           55

     VI.--Before the Wedding                              69

    VII.--The Gathering Storm                             78

   VIII.--Fled                                            94

     IX.--"Mrs. Laurence"                                102

      X.--"A Fool's Paradise"                            109

     XI.--Gone                                           122

    XII.--The Truth                                      131

   XIII.--Mr. Liston's Story                             142

    XIV.--A Dark Compact                                 150

     XV.--"A Fashionable Wedding"                        159

    XVI.--"His name is Laurence Thorndyke"               167

   XVII.--A Letter from Paris                            178

  XVIII.--After Four Years                               185

    XIX.--"Whom the gods wish to
          destroy they first make mad"                   196

     XX.--Norine's Revenge                               211

    XXI.--"The mills of the gods grind slowly, but
          they grind exceedingly small"                  215

   XXII.--"The way of the Transgressor is hard."         225

  XXIII.--"Jenny Kissed me."                             231


  SIR NOEL'S HEIR.


      I.--Sir Noel's Deathbed                            243

     II.--Captain Everard                                252

    III.--"Little May"                                   262

     IV.--Mrs. Weymore                                   272

      V.--A Journey to London                            283

     VI.--Guy                                            288

    VII.--Col. Jocyln                                    298

   VIII.--Lady Thetford's Ball                           307

     IX.--Guy Legard                                     317

      X.--Asking in Marriage                             325

     XI.--On the Wedding eve                             334

    XII.--Mrs. Weymore's Story                           346

   XIII.--"There is many a slip"                         354

    XIV.--Parted                                         363

     XV.--After Five Years                               369

    XVI.--At Sorrento                                    373

   XVII.--At Home                                        376


  A DARK CONSPIRACY                                      379


  FOR BETTER FOR WORSE                                   393




NORINE'S REVENGE.




CHAPTER I.

TWO BLACK EYES AND THEIR WORK.


The early express train from Montreal to Portland, Maine, was crowded.

Mr. Richard Gilbert, lawyer, of New York, entering five minutes before
starting time, found just one seat unoccupied near the door. A crusty
old farmer held the upper half, and moved grumpily toward the window,
under protest, as Mr. Gilbert took the place.

The month was March, the morning snowy and blowy, slushy and sleety, as
it is in the nature of Canadian March mornings to be. The sharp sleet
lashed the glass, people shivered in multitudinous wraps, lifted purple
noses, over-twisted woolen clouds and looked forlorn and miserable. And
Mr. Gilbert, congratulating himself inwardly on having secured a seat by
the stove, opened the damp _Montreal True Witness_, and settled himself
comfortably to read. He turned to the leading article, read three lines,
and never finished it from that day to this. For the door opened, a howl
of March wind, a rush of March rain whirled in, and lifting his eyes,
Mr. Richard Gilbert saw in the doorway a new passenger.

The new passenger was a young lady, and the young lady was the prettiest
young lady, Mr. Gilbert thought, in that first moment, he had ever seen.

She was tall, she was slim, she was dark, she had long loose, curly
black hair, falling to her waist, and two big, bright, black, Canadian
eyes, as lovely eyes as the wide earth holds. She stood there in the
doorway, faltering, frightened, irresolute, a very picture--the color
coming and going in the youthful, sensitive face, the luminous brown
eyes glancing like the eyes of a startled bird. She stood there, laden
with bundles, bandboxes, and reticules, and holding a little blinking
spaniel by a string.

Every seat was filled, no one seemed disposed to dispossess themselves,
even for the accommodation of youth and beauty. Only for six seconds,
though; then Richard Gilbert, rose up, and quietly, and, as a matter of
course, offered his seat to the young lady. She smiled--what a smile it
was, what a bright little row of teeth it showed, dimpled, blushed--the
loveliest rose-pink blush in the world, hesitated, and spoke:

"But, monsieur!" in excellent English, set to a delicious French accent.
"But, monsieur will have no place."

"Monsieur will do very well. Oblige me, mademoiselle, by taking this
seat."

"Monsieur is very good. Thanks."

She fluttered down into the seat, and Mr. Gilbert disposed of the many
bundles and boxes and bags on the rack overhead. He was smiling a little
to himself as he did so; the _role_ of lady's man was quite a new one in
this gentleman's cast in the great play of Life. The grumpy old farmer,
with a grunt of disapprobation, edged still further up to the window.

"Monsieur can sit on the arm of the seat," suggests the young lady,
glancing up with a pretty girl's glance--half shy, half coquettish; "it
is so very fatiguing to stand."

Monsieur avails himself of the offer immediately, and finds he is in an
excellent position to examine that very charming face. But he does not
examine it: he is not one of your light-minded, mustache-growing,
frivolous-headed youths of three-or-four-and-twenty, to whom the smiling
face of a pretty girl is the most fascinating object under heaven.

Mr. Gilbert casts one look, only one, then draws forth the _True
Witness_ and buries himself in the leading article. The last bell rings,
the whistle shrieks, a plunge, a snort, and they are rushing madly off
into the wild March morning. The young lady looks about her, the grumpy
farmer is between her and the window, the window is all blurred and
blotted; Mr. Gilbert is fathoms deep in his paper. She gives a little
sigh, then lifts her small dog up in her lap, and begins an animated
conversation with him in French. Frollo understands Canadian French,
certainly not a word of English, and he blinks his watery eyes, and
listens sagaciously to it all. The farmer looks askance, and grunts like
one of his own