I Say No, Wilkie Collins [top 10 books of all time TXT] 📗

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I SAY NO

by Wilkie Collins

February, 1999 [Etext #1629]

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[Italics are indicatedby underscores James Rusk, jrusk@cyberramp.net.]

[Etext version by James Rusk, jrusk@cyberramp.net. Italics are indicated by underscores.]

“I SAY NO.”

by WILKIE COLLINS

BOOK THE FIRST—AT SCHOOL.

CHAPTER I.

THE SMUGGLED SUPPER.

Outside the bedroom the night was black and still.

The small rain fell too softly to be heard in the garden; not a leaf stirred in the airless calm; the watch-dog was asleep, the cats were indoors; far or near, under the murky heaven, not a sound was stirring.

Inside the bedroom the night was black and still.

Miss Ladd knew her business as a schoolmistress too well to allow night-lights; and Miss Ladd’s young ladies were supposed to be fast asleep, in accordance with the rules of the house. Only at intervals the silence was faintly disturbed, when the restless turning of one of the girls in her bed betrayed itself by a gentle rustling between the sheets. In the