ISBN: 2940013117389

CONTENTS 1 The Rassendylls--With a Word on the Elphbergs 2 Concerning the Colour of Men's Hair 3 A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative 4 The King Keeps his Appointme… Plus…

CONTENTS 1 The Rassendylls--With a Word on the Elphbergs 2 Concerning the Colour of Men's Hair 3 A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative 4 The King Keeps his Appointment 5 The Adventures of an Understudy 6 The Secret of a Cellar 7 His Majesty Sleeps in Strelsau 8 A Fair Cousin and a Dark Brother 9 A New Use for a Tea-Table 10 A Great Chance for a Villain 11 Hunting a Very Big Boar 12 I Receive a Visitor and Bait a Hook 13 An Improvement on Jacob's Ladder 14 A Night Outside the Castle 15 I Talk with a Tempter 16 A Desperate Plan 17 Young Rupert's Midnight Diversions 18 The Forcing of the Trap 19 Face to Face in the Forest 20 The Prisoner and the King 21 If Love Were All! 22 Present, Past--and Future?CHAPTER 1The Rassendylls--With a Word on the ElphbergsI wonder when in the world you're going to do anything, Rudolf? saidmy brother's wife.My dear Rose, I answered, laying down my egg-spoon, why in the worldshould I do anything? My position is a comfortable one. I have anincome nearly sufficient for my wants (no one's income is ever quitesufficient, you know), I enjoy an enviable social position: I ambrother to Lord Burlesdon, and brother-in-law to that charming lady, hiscountess. Behold, it is enough!You are nine-and-twenty, she observed, and you've done nothing but--Knock about? It is true. Our family doesn't need to do things.This remark of mine rather annoyed Rose, for everybody knows (andtherefore there can be no harm in referring to the fact) that, prettyand accomplished as she herself is, her family is hardly of the samestanding as the Rassendylls. Besides her attractions, she possessed alarge fortune, and my brother Robert was wise enough not to mind abouther ancestry. Ancestry is, in fact, a matter concerning which the nextobservation of Rose's has some truth.Good families are generally worse than any others, she said.Upon this I stroked my hair: I knew quite well what she meant.I'm so glad Robert's is black! she cried.At this moment Robert (who rises at seven and works before breakfast)came in. He glanced at his wife: her cheek was slightly flushed; hepatted it caressingly.What's the matter, my dear? he asked.She objects to my doing nothing and having red hair, said I, in aninjured tone.Oh! of course he can't help his hair, admitted Rose.It generally crops out once in a generation, said my brother. So doesthe nose. Rudolf has got them both.I wish they didn't crop out, said Rose, still flushed.I rather like them myself, said I, and, rising, I bowed to theportrait of Countess Amelia.My brother's wife uttered an exclamation of impatience.I wish you'd take that picture away, Robert, said she.My dear! he cried.Good heavens! I added.Then it might be forgotten, she continued.Hardly--with Rudolf about, said Robert, shaking his head.Why should it be forgotten? I asked.Rudolf! exclaimed my brother's wife, blushing very prettily.I laughed, and went on with my egg. At least I had shelved the questionof what (if anything) I ought to do. And, by way of closing thediscussion--and also, I must admit, of exasperating my strict littlesister-in-law a trifle more--I observed:I rather like being an Elphberg myself.When I read a story, I skip the explanations; yet the moment I begin towrite one, I find that I must have an explanation. For it is manifestthat I must explain why my sister-in-law was vexed with my nose andhair, and why I ventured to call myself an Elphberg. For eminent as,I must protest, the Rassendylls have been for many generations, yetparticipation in their blood of course does not, at first sight, justifythe boast of a connection with the grander stock of the Elphbergs ora claim to be one of that Royal House. For what relationship is therebetween Ruritania and Burlesdon, between the Palace at Strelsau or theCastle of Zenda and Number 305 Park Lane, W.?Well then--and I must premise that I am going, perforce, to rake up thevery scandal which my dear Lady Burlesdon wishes forgotten--in the year1733, George II. sitting then on the throne, peace reigning forthe moment, and the King and the Prince of Wales being not yet atloggerheads, there came on a visit to the English Court a certainprince, who was afterwards known to history as Rudolf the Third ofRuritania. Digital Content>E-books>Classics>Coll Classics>Coll Classics, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940013117389

CONTENTS 1 The Rassendylls--With a Word on the Elphbergs 2 Concerning the Colour of Men's Hair 3 A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative 4 The King Keeps his Appointme… Plus…

CONTENTS 1 The Rassendylls--With a Word on the Elphbergs 2 Concerning the Colour of Men's Hair 3 A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative 4 The King Keeps his Appointment 5 The Adventures of an Understudy 6 The Secret of a Cellar 7 His Majesty Sleeps in Strelsau 8 A Fair Cousin and a Dark Brother 9 A New Use for a Tea-Table 10 A Great Chance for a Villain 11 Hunting a Very Big Boar 12 I Receive a Visitor and Bait a Hook 13 An Improvement on Jacob's Ladder 14 A Night Outside the Castle 15 I Talk with a Tempter 16 A Desperate Plan 17 Young Rupert's Midnight Diversions 18 The Forcing of the Trap 19 Face to Face in the Forest 20 The Prisoner and the King 21 If Love Were All! 22 Present, Past--and Future?CHAPTER 1The Rassendylls--With a Word on the ElphbergsI wonder when in the world you're going to do anything, Rudolf? saidmy brother's wife.My dear Rose, I answered, laying down my egg-spoon, why in the worldshould I do anything? My position is a comfortable one. I have anincome nearly sufficient for my wants (no one's income is ever quitesufficient, you know), I enjoy an enviable social position: I ambrother to Lord Burlesdon, and brother-in-law to that charming lady, hiscountess. Behold, it is enough!You are nine-and-twenty, she observed, and you've done nothing but--Knock about? It is true. Our family doesn't need to do things.This remark of mine rather annoyed Rose, for everybody knows (andtherefore there can be no harm in referring to the fact) that, prettyand accomplished as she herself is, her family is hardly of the samestanding as the Rassendylls. Besides her attractions, she possessed alarge fortune, and my brother Robert was wise enough not to mind abouther ancestry. Ancestry is, in fact, a matter concerning which the nextobservation of Rose's has some truth.Good families are generally worse than any others, she said.Upon this I stroked my hair: I knew quite well what she meant.I'm so glad Robert's is black! she cried.At this moment Robert (who rises at seven and works before breakfast)came in. He glanced at his wife: her cheek was slightly flushed; hepatted it caressingly.What's the matter, my dear? he asked.She objects to my doing nothing and having red hair, said I, in aninjured tone.Oh! of course he can't help his hair, admitted Rose.It generally crops out once in a generation, said my brother. So doesthe nose. Rudolf has got them both.I wish they didn't crop out, said Rose, still flushed.I rather like them myself, said I, and, rising, I bowed to theportrait of Countess Amelia.My brother's wife uttered an exclamation of impatience.I wish you'd take that picture away, Robert, said she.My dear! he cried.Good heavens! I added.Then it might be forgotten, she continued.Hardly--with Rudolf about, said Robert, shaking his head.Why should it be forgotten? I asked.Rudolf! exclaimed my brother's wife, blushing very prettily.I laughed, and went on with my egg. At least I had shelved the questionof what (if anything) I ought to do. And, by way of closing thediscussion--and also, I must admit, of exasperating my strict littlesister-in-law a trifle more--I observed:I rather like being an Elphberg myself.When I read a story, I skip the explanations; yet the moment I begin towrite one, I find that I must have an explanation. For it is manifestthat I must explain why my sister-in-law was vexed with my nose andhair, and why I ventured to call myself an Elphberg. For eminent as,I must protest, the Rassendylls have been for many generations, yetparticipation in their blood of course does not, at first sight, justifythe boast of a connection with the grander stock of the Elphbergs ora claim to be one of that Royal House. For what relationship is therebetween Ruritania and Burlesdon, between the Palace at Strelsau or theCastle of Zenda and Number 305 Park Lane, W.?Well then--and I must premise that I am going, perforce, to rake up thevery scandal which my dear Lady Burlesdon wishes forgotten--in the year1733, George II. sitting then on the throne, peace reigning forthe moment, and the King and the Prince of Wales being not yet atloggerheads, there came on a visit to the English Court a certainprince, who was afterwards known to history as Rudolf the Third ofRuritania. Digital Content>E-books>Literature>Literature>Literature, SAP Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940013117389

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA THE-PRISONER-OF-ZENDA~~Anthony-Hope Literature>Literature>Literature NOOK Book (eBook), SAP