A STORY WITHOUT A PLOT. BY MARY E. GELLIE, (M.E.B.) AUTHOR OF CLEMENT'S TRIAL," 'THE THREE WISHES," THE NEW GIRL," etc. GRIFFITH & FARRAN: (SUCCESSORS TO NEWBERRY AND HARRIS) WEST CORNER ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, LONDON. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. BOOK FIRST. CHAPTER I. CHILTERN. STEPHEN RIVERS closed the house door, putting the latch key into his pocket with a proud sense of possession, and stepped across the road to admire his new home for the first time. There was not much to look at for an ordinary observer. A tiny red brick house with three windows and a green door, and a few square feet of bare ground in front. This was the new schoolmaster's new house, for Stephen Rivers was the master of the Chiltern school. He had reached his new quarters the night before, and was to begin his duties to-day. It was now early morning, and he wished to start by getting some idea of the place he was to live in. At first he felt a chill of disappointment at the appearance of the school-house. It all looked so new and staring, so evidently fresh out of the hands of masons and carpenters. But he mentally planted some fast growing creepers, and filled his garden plot with A |