A first-person confession novel by R. Austin Freeman, the creator of Dr Thorndyke. Helen Vardon recounts a life shaped by tragedy, romance and crime, moving through mystery and moral pressure. It is worth listening for its suspenseful storytelling and its intimate portrait of a woman's ordeal.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
HELEN VARDON’S CONFESSION BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN AUTHOR OF “THE EYE OF OSIRIS,” “THE RED THUMB MARK,” ETC. HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON Contents PROLOGUE BOOK I. TRAGEDY I. THE CRACK OF DOOM II. ATRA CURA III. THE COVENANT IV. THE ELEVENTH HOUR V. ON THE BRINK VI. A MEETING AND A PARTING
VII. THE TERMS OF RELEASE
VIII. “WHOM GOD HATH JOINED——”
IX. TESTIMONY AND COUNSEL
X. THE TURNING OF THE PAGE
BOOK II. ROMANCE
XI. A HARBOUR OF REFUGE
XII. THE HIDDEN HAND
XIII. A CRYSTAL-GAZER AND OTHER MATTERS
XIV. JASPER DAVENANT
XV. THE MAGIC PENDULUM
XVI. THE SWEATED ARTIST
XVII. THE APOTHEOSIS OF THE TITMOUSE
XVIII. AMONG THE BREAKERS
XIX. ILLUSIONS AND DISILLUSIONS
XX. CLOUD AND SUNSHINE
XXI. A DREADFUL INHERITANCE
XXII. THE CATASTROPHE
BOOK III. CRIME
XXIII. THE DEAD HAND
XXIV. THE GATHERING CLOUDS
XXV. SUSPENSE: AND A DISCOVERY
XXVI. THE ADJOURNED INQUIRY
XXVII. THE INDICTMENT
XXVIII. THE VERDICT
EPILOGUE
Prologue
TLj every woman there comes a day (and that all too soon) when she receives the first hint that Time, the harvester, has not passed her by unnoticed. The waning of actual youth may have passed with but the faintest regret, if any; regret for the lost bud being merged in the triumph at the glory of the opening blossom. But the waning of womanhood is another matter. Old age has no compensations to offer
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