Endymion by Benjamin Disraeli
It was a rich, warm night, at the beginning of August, when a gentleman enveloped in a cloak, for he was in evening dress, emerged from a club-house at the top of St. James' Street, and descended that celebrated eminence. He had not proceeded more than half way down the street when, encountering a friend, he stopped with some abruptness.
"I have been looking for you everywhere," he said.
"What is it?"
"We can hardly talk about it here."
"Shall we go to White's?"
"I have just left it, and, between ourselves, I would rather we should be more alone. 'Tis as warm as noon. Let us cross the street and get into St. James' Place. That is always my idea of solitude."
So they crossed the street, and, at the corner of St. James' Place, met several gentlemen who had just come out of Brookes' Club-house. These saluted the companions as they passed, and said, "Capital account from Chiswick-Lord Howard says the chief will be in Downing Street on Monday."
"It is of Chiswick that I am going to speak to you," said the gentleman in the cloak, putting his arm in that of his companion as they walked on. "What I am about to tell you is known only to three persons, and is the most sacred of secrets. Nothing but our friendship could authorise me to impart it to you."
"I hope it is something to your advantage," said his companion.
"Nothing of that sort; it is of yourself that I am thinking. Since our political estrangement, I have never had a contented moment. From Christ Church, until that unhappy paralytic stroke, which broke up a government that had lasted fifteen years, and might have continued fifteen more, we seemed always to have been working together. That we should again unite is my dearest wish. A crisis is at hand. I want you to use it to your advantage. Know then, that what they were just saying about Chiswick is moonshine. His case is hopeless, and it has been communicated to the King."
"Hopeless!"
"Rely upon it; it came direct from the Cottage to my friend."
"I thought he had a mission?" said his companion, with emotion; "and men with missions do not disappear till they have fulfilled them."
"But why did you think so? How often have I asked you for your grounds for such a conviction! There are none. The man of the age is clearly the Duke, the saviour of Europe, in the perfection of manhood, and with an iron constitution."
"The salvation of Europe is the affair of a past generation," said his companion. "We want something else now. The salvation of England should be the subject rather of our present thoughts."
"England! why when were things more sound? Except the split among our own men, which will be now cured, there is not a cause of disquietude."
"I have much," said his friend.
"You never used to have any, Sidney. What extraordinary revelations can have been made to you during three months of office under a semi-Whig Ministry?"
"Your taunt is fair, though it pains me. And I confess to you that when I resolved to follow Canning and join his new allies, I had many a twinge. I was bred in the Tory camp; the Tories put me in Parliament and gave me office; I lived with them and liked them; we dined and voted together, and together pasquinaded our opponents. And yet, after Castlereagh's death, to whom like yourself I was much attached, I had great misgivings as to the position of our party, and the future of the country. I tried to drive them from my mind, and at last took refuge in Canning, who seemed just the man appointed for an age of transition."
"But a transition to what?"
"Well, his foreign policy was Liberal."
"The same as the Duke's; the same as poor dear Castlereagh's. Nothing more unjust than the affected belief that there was any difference between them-a ruse of the Whigs to foster discord in our ranks. And as for domestic affairs, no one is stouter against Parliamentary Reform, while he is for the Church and no surrender, though he may make a harmless speech now and then, as many of us do, in favour of the Catholic claims."
"Well, we will not now pursue this old controversy, my dear Ferrars, particularly if it be true, as you say, that Mr. Canning now lies upon his deathbed."
"If! I tell you at this very moment it may be all over."
"I am shaken to my very centre."
"It is doubtless a great blow to you," rejoined Mr. Ferrars, "and I wish to alleviate it. That is why I was looking for you. The King will, of course, send for the Duke, but I can tell you there will be a disposition to draw back our friends that left us, at least the younger ones of promise. If you are awake, there is no reason why you should not retain your office."
"I am not so sure the King will send for the Duke."
"It is certain."
"Well," said his companion musingly, "it may be fancy, but I cannot resist the feeling that this country, and the world generally, are on the eve of a great change-and I do not think the Duke is the man for the epoch."
"I see no reason why there should be any great change; certainly not in this country," said Mr. Ferrars. "Here we have changed everything that was required. Peel has settled the criminal law, and Huskisson the currency, and though I am prepared myself still further to reduce the duties on foreign imports, no one can deny that on this subject the Government is in advance of public opinion."
"The whole affair rests on too contracted a basis," said his companion. "We are habituated to its exclusiveness, and, no doubt, custom in England is a power; but let some event suddenly occur which makes a nation feel or think, and the whole thing might vanish like a dream."
"What can happen? Such affairs as the Luddites do not occur twice in a century, and as for Spafields riots, they are impossible now with Peel's new police. The country is employed and prosperous, and were it not so, the landed interest would always keep things straight."
"It is powerful, and has been powerful for a long time; but there are other interests besides the landed interest now."
"Well, there is the colonial interest, and the shipping interest," said Mr. Ferrars, "and both of them thoroughly with us."
"I was not thinking of them," said his companion. "It is the increase of population, and of a population not employed in the cultivation of the soil, and all the consequences of such circumstances that were passing over my mind."
"Don't you be too doctrinaire, my dear Sidney; you and I are practical men. We must deal with the existing, the urgent; and there is nothing more pressing at this moment than the formation of a new government. What I want is to see you as a member of it."
"Ah!" said his companion with a sigh, "do you really think it so near as that?"
"Why, what have we been talking of all this time, my dear Sidney? Clear your head of all doubt, and, if possible, of all regrets; we must deal with the facts, and we must deal with them to-morrow."
"I still think he had a mission," said Sidney with a sigh, "if it were only to bring hope to a people."
"Well, I do not see he could have done anything more," said Mr. Ferrars, "nor do I believe his government would have lasted during the session. However, I must now say good-night, for I must look in at the Square. Think well of what I have said, and let me hear from you as soon as you can."
Some ten years before the revolt of our American colonies, there was situate in one of our midland counties, on the borders of an extensive forest, an ancient hall that belonged to the Herberts, but which, though ever well preserved, had not until that period been visited by any member of the family, since the exile of the Stuarts.
We are not aware that the infancy of Vivian Grey was distinguished by any extraordinary incident. The solicitude of the most affectionate of mothers and the care of the most attentive of nurses did their best to injure an excellent constitution.
"Sign them. Now!" He threw the papers across the bed and they fluttered in front of me, taunting me with words boldly spelled on them. Divorce. My blood had fizzled out. I refused to believe this was happening. I had never filled myself with delusions of Ezekiel ever loving me, but I had truly believed we could both tolerate our obligations to each other. Perhaps I was just blinded by love. "You're breaking this marriage because of Ellen? Because of my sister?" **** As though the death of her grandmother and a painful divorce weren't enough torture for one day, Camille Manor stands frozen in the face of a family annulment. Letting go of her past life, she leaves for the States where she aims to start life afresh and raise her children not even the father knew about. Things change when she receives a shocking letter that changes everything. Now, after four years of staying away, Camille must return to London to face the lurking shadows of her past. But with her ex-husband back in her life, will her plans for revenge go smoothly? In the midst of exposing buried family secrets, she struggles to tame the feelings she still has for Zeke despite his betrayal while hiding his paternity over her children. Meanwhile, she takes down the Manor's one by one in a bid to reclaim the honor that was once hers. Delve into the soul-gripping romance between Kamille and Ezekiel as they navigate a web of lies, betrayal and deceit within family ties. As well as unravel a secret nobody saw coming.
Emerald thought that she and Jace Higginson were divorced. After five years, she returns to the country to collaborate with his company and eventually takes her revenge. What will she do when she sees a different Jace, making her uneasy whenever they meet? What would she do when her supposed ex-husband was still her husband because he didn't file the divorce? Will Emerald give Jace his rights to their son whom she conceived before she left?
"Hi, I'm here for the job interview," I uttered tremblingly as I turned to face the most attractive man I had ever seen. He looked so attractive; his dark ash brown hair brushed back. His wicked, lethal look might murder with its dark eyes. His face was expressionless due to his tiny lips that created a straight line. His great stature towered over me, as did his exquisite features, sculpted by the hand of God. He embodied everything that made a Greek god. "And you are?" he said in a low, husky voice, maintaining his emotionless demeanor. His icy eyes continued to look into mine as I trembled to speak, "I-I'm Miranda Lucas." He didn't say anything, and when at last his gaze shifted from me to a file in his hands, the room fell silent. Before turning back to face me, he spends a few minutes staring down at the paperwork in his hands. "Age?" "27" was all I said, feeling uneasy once more from his intense looks. He gave a slight nod, then glanced back down at the file. He closed his file and turned to face me, saying only, "You're hired." My eyes widened as I met his. Is that all? Not asking any more questions? • Five years ago, Miranda was drugged by one of her friends and end up pregnant with a stranger's baby. She was against abortion, so when she became despondent, she had no choice but to give birth to the baby. Nine months after giving birth, someone stole her one-week-old baby. After making unsuccessful attempts to find her baby, she was traumatized and spent the rest of her life being afraid to have children or around children. But when she found herself jobless and in debt to her landlord, everything changed. After applying for jobs and getting rejected for every one of them, Miranda found a babysitting job online. All she had to do was look after the CEO's son in exchange for weekly pay, but what would happen if the CEO's son happened to look a little bit like her?
"I'm going to tell you what I have in mind," he murmured. "First you're going to strip down until you're completely naked," he whispered against her ear. "Then I'm going to tie you up so you're completely powerless and subject to my every whim." "Mmm, sounds good so far," she murmured. "Then I'm going to insert a plug to prepare you for me. After that I'm going to spank that sweet ass of yours until it's rosy with my marks." She shivered uncontrollably, her mind exploding with the images he evoked. She let out a small whimper as he sucked the lobe of her ear into his mouth. God, she could cum with just his words. She was already aching with need. Her nipples tingled and hardened to painful points. Her clit pulsed and twitched between her legs until she clamped her thighs together to alleviate the burn. "And then I'm going to f**k your mouth. But I won't cum. Not yet. When I'm close, I'll flog you again until your ass is burning and you're on fire with the need for relief. And then I'm going to f**k that ass. I'm going to take you hard and rough, to the very limits of what you can withstand. I won't be gentle. Not tonight. I'm going to take you as roughly as you can stand. And then I'm going to cum all over your ass. Are you ready to be completely and utterly dominated?"
After spending a night with a strange man on the day before her wedding, Arianna left the country to start her life afresh. The 22-year-old Arianna Jason lived her life pleasing those she loved the most, without knowing that she was simply a prey being nurtured for the day of her ruin. Her life has tasted the butter pill of betrayal. She wants to give back to the world what she's got but how can she change her good, innocent personality to fit into a cruel society and world? Can her sweet nature be contaminated, or will she make it through, paddling on the right path?
Thea felt she would never be happy again after she was forced to marry the infamous and mysterious cripple, who went by the name, Mr. Reynolds. It was rumored that her new husband was ugly and very mean. As a result, Thea prepared herself to endure her unhappy marriage. But she received a big shocker soon after. Her husband showered her with all the love. He made her feel so special. Mr. Reynolds was her knight in shining armor. He defended her against all those who came for her. Even when her own father mistreated her, he destroyed the geezer's car. All her haters resented her to the bone. As they licked their wounds, they cussed her out in their hearts. What a heartless woman! Mr. Reynolds put his arms around Thea and declared, "She's the love of my life. I love her just the way she is. Does anyone have any objections?"