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The dead body of Turlington lay on the landing outside. The charge in the fourth barrel of the revolver had exploded while he was looking at it. The bullet had entered his mouth and killed him on the spot.

DOCUMENTARY HINTS, IN CONCLUSION.

First Hint.

(Derived from Lady Winwood's Card-Rack.)

"Sir Joseph Graybrooke and Miss Graybrooke request the honor of Lord and Lady Winwood's company to dinner, on Wednesday, February 10, at half-past seven o'clock. To meet Mr. and Mrs. Launcelot Linzie on their return."

Second Hint.

(Derived from a recent Money Article in morning Newspaper.)

"We are requested to give the fullest contradiction to unfavorable rumors lately in circulation respecting the firm of Pizzituti, Turlington, and Branca. Some temporary derangement in the machinery of the business was undoubtedly produced in consequence of the sudden death of the lamented managing partner, Mr. Turlington, by the accidental discharge of a revolver which he was examining. Whatever temporary obstacles may have existed are now overcome. We are informed, on good authority, that the well-known house of Messrs. Bulpit Brothers has an interest in the business, and will carry it on until further notice."

________

Go to Start

The Queen of Hearts

by Wilkie Collins

-I- | -II- | -III- | -IV- | THE TEN DAYS | THE FIRST DAY | Brother Owen's Story of The Siege of The Black Cottage | THE SECOND DAY | Brother griffith's story of the family secret | -I- | -II- | -III- | THE THIRD DAY | Brother Morgan's Story of the Dream-woman | -I- | -II- | -III- | -IV- | THE FOURTH DAY | Brother Griffith's Story of Mad Monkton | -I- | -II- | -III- | -IV- | -V- | -VI- | THE FIFTH DAY | Brother Morgan's Story of The Dead Hand | THE SIXTH DAY | Brother Griffith's Story Of the Biter Bit | THE SEVENTH DAY | Brother Owen's Story of The Parson's Scruple | -I- | -II- | THE EIGHTH DAY | Brother Griffith's Story of A Plot In Private Life | -I- | -II- | -III- | -IV- | -V- | -IV- | THE NINTH DAY | Brother Morgan's Story of Fauntleroy | -II- | THE TENTH DAY | Brother Owen's Story of Anne Rodway | THE NIGHT | THE MORNING

[Italics are indicated with underscore]

LETTER OF DEDICATION.

----TO EMILE FORGUES. ----

AT a time when French readers were altogether unaware of the existence of any books of my writing, a critical examination of my novels appeared under your signature in the _Revue des Deux Moudes_. I read that article, at the time of its appearance, with sincere pleasure and sincere gratitude to the writer, and I have honestly done my best to profit by it ever since.

At a later period, when arrangements were made for the publication of my novels in Paris, you kindly undertook, at some sacrifice of your own convenience, to give the first of the series--"The Dead Secret"--the great advantage of being rendered into French by your pen. Your excellent translation of "The Lighthouse" had already taught me how to appreciate the value of your assistance; and when "The Dead Secret" appeared in its French form, although I was sensibly gratified, I was by no means surprised to find my fortunate work of fiction, not translated, in the mechanical sense of the word, but transformed from a novel that I had written in my language to a novel that you might have written in yours.

I am now about to ask you to confer one more literary obligation on me by accepting the dedication of this book, as the earliest acknowledgment which it has been in my power to make of the debt I owe to my critic, to my translator, and to my friend.

The stories which form the principal contents of the following pages are all, more or less, exercises in that art which I have now studied anxiously for some years, and which I still hope to cultivate, to better and better purpose, for many more. Allow me, by inscribing the collection to you, to secure one reader for it at the outset of its progress through the world of letters whose capacity for seeing all a writer's defects may be matched by many other critics, but whose rarer faculty