Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net FERNLEY HOUSE BOOKS FOR GIRLS By Laura E. Richards _The_ MARGARET SERIES Three Margarets Margaret Montfort Peggy Rita Fernley House _The_ HILDEGARDE SERIES Queen Hildegarde Hildegarde's Holiday Hildegarde's Home Hildegarde's Neighbors Hildegarde's Harvest DANA ESTES & COMPANY Publishers Estes Press, Summer St., Boston [Illustration: "HUGH AND MARGARET, ALL UNCONSCIOUS OF HER SCRUTINY, WERE ENJOYING THEMSELVES EXTREMELY."] FERNLEY HOUSE BY LAURA E. RICHARDS AUTHOR OF "CAPTAIN JANUARY," "MELODY," "QUEEN HILDEGARDE," "GEOFFREY STRONG," ETC. Illustrated by ETHELDRED B. BARRY [Illustration] BOSTON DANA ESTES & COMPANY PUBLISHERS _Copyright, 1901_ BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY _All rights reserved_ FERNLEY HOUSE Colonial Press Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, Mass., U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A DUET 11 II. MRS. PEYTON'S COMPANION 23 III. AN ARRIVAL 33 IV. UNCLE JOHN'S IDEA 46 V. A VISION 58 VI. ALI BABA 70 VII. MORE ARRIVALS 86 VIII. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 100 IX. ABOUT NOTHING IN PARTICULAR 114 X. GRACE'S SYSTEM 128 XI. THE MYSTERIES OF FERNLEY 143 XII. THE EGG OF COLUMBUS 161 XIII. IN THE TWILIGHT 168 XIV. THE FIRE 183 XV. JEWELS: AND AN AWAKENING 195 XVI. FOR AULD LANG SYNE 205 XVII. IN THE GARDEN 217 XVIII. UNCLE JOHN'S BIRTHDAY 225 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE "HUGH AND MARGARET, ALL UNCONSCIOUS OF HER SCRUTINY, WERE ENJOYING THEMSELVES EXTREMELY" _Frontispiece_ "MARGARET DID THE HONORS, STILL FEELING VERY SHY" 29 "AT THIS MOMENT POLLY APPEARED, RED-CHEEKED AND BREATHLESS" 33 "SHE WAS A SLENDERER PEGGY, WITH THE SAME BLUE, HONEST EYES" 86