THE FLOWER OF THE FLOCK
By Pierce Egan
Author Of “The Poor Girl,” &c., &c.
In Three Volumes.
Vol. I.
London: Published By W. S. Johnson & Co.
1865
CONTENTS
THE FLOWER OF THE FLOCK
CHAPTER I.—THE SHADOW IN THE SUNSHINE.
CHAPTER II.—THE WORM UPON THE LEAF.
CHAPTER III.—POSSESSION DISTURBED.
CHAPTER IV.—THE FORGERY.
CHAPTER V.—THE CONFLAGRATION.
CHAPTER VI.—THE NOBLE GUESTS.
CHAPTER VII.—LOVE AWAKENING.
CHAPTER VIII.—THE PRISON.
CHAPTER IX.—THE MYSTERY.
CHAPTER X.—THE INEXPLICABLE LIBERATION.
CHAPTER XI.—SHADOWS.
CHAPTER XII.—A LIFE STRUGGLE.
CHAPTER XIII.—THE FORGED DEED.
CHAPTER XIV.—LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.
CHAPTER XV.—THE PROPOSITION.
CHAPTER XVI.—SELFISHNESS AND SORROW.
THE FLOWER OF THE FLOCK
CHAPTER I.—THE SHADOW IN THE SUNSHINE.
And the sunlight clasps the earth.
—Shelley.
From her chamber window he would catch
Her beauty faster than the falcon spies;
And constant as her vespers would he watch,
Because her face was turned to the same skies.
—Keats
A bright sunny morning, at the end of June, in busy, restless London. The overarching vault of heaven was filled with an atmosphere of golden hue. Sunshine was glowing upon cathedral turrets and upon the church spires, upon the pinnacles of lofty buildings, and the crowns of tall factory shafts. The bronzed and tarnished ball and cross of St. Paul’s, and the shaggy-crested Monument, which “like a tall bully lifts its head,” shone as if they had