Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/johnnyludlowthir00wood Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by plus signs is in Old English font (+Old English+). Small capitals were changed to all capitals. A list of corrections is at the end of the book. JOHNNY LUDLOW. THIRD SERIES [Illustration] JOHNNY LUDLOW by MRS. HENRY WOOD Author of "East Lynne," "The Channings," etc. THIRD SERIES. +Twenty-Third Thousand+ +London:+ Macmillan and Co., Limited. New York: the Macmillan Company. 1899. London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. CONTENTS PAGE THE MYSTERY OF JESSY PAGE 1 CRABB RAVINE 43 OUR VISIT 87 JANET CAREY 112 DR. KNOX 135 HELEN WHITNEY'S WEDDING 158 HELEN'S CURATE 180 JELLICO'S PACK 203 CAROMEL'S FARM 223 CHARLOTTE AND CHARLOTTE 244 THE LAST OF THE CAROMELS 267 A DAY IN BRIAR WOOD 290 THE STORY OF DOROTHY GRAPE: DISAPPEARANCE 313 THE STORY OF DOROTHY GRAPE: IN AFTER YEARS 335 LADY JENKINS: MINA 359 LADY JENKINS: DOUBT 382 LADY JENKINS: MADAME 406 LADY JENKINS: LIGHT 429 THE ANGELS' MUSIC 452 "God sent his Singers upon earth With songs of sadness and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men, And bring them back to heaven again." LONGFELLOW. JOHNNY LUDLOW THE MYSTERY OF JESSY PAGE. I. Our old grey church at Church Dykely stood in a solitary spot. Servant maids (two of ours once, Hannah and Molly), and silly village girls went there sometimes to watch for the "shadows" on St. Mark's Eve, and owls had a habit of darting out of the belfry at night. Within view of the church, though at some distance from it, stood the lonely, red-brick, angular dwelling-house belonging to Copse Farm. It was inhabited by Mr. Page, a plain worthy widower, getting in years; his three daughters and little son. Abigail and Susan Page, two experienced, sensible, industrious young women, with sallow faces and bunches of short dark curls, were at this period, about midway between twenty and thirty: Jessy, very much younger, was gone out to get two years' "finishing" at a plain boarding-school; Charles, the lad, had bad health and went to school by day at Church Dykely.