Knock at a Venture - v. 29 Author:Eden Phillpotts Volume: v. 29 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1905 Original Publisher: The Macmillan Company Subjects: Fiction / Anthologies Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Short Stories Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of... more » the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: So it came about that, when the "Ring o' Bells" was masterless, an obscure maiden, who had dwelt there since Mrs. Merle's demise, found herself possessor of all the money, for Miser Merle left no will. Minnie Merle was his orphaned niece, and when the old man's unhappy partner shuffled off, he bethought him of this girl. As a relation, lacking friends or position, she would come without wages. So, from the position of domestic servant in a Plymouth tradesman's family at three pounds a year, Minnie was exalted to be the handmaid of Miser Merle without remuneration of any kind. "A man's own flesh and blood," he said, when first she came, "will understand, but I don't want to poison your regard for me with money, or reduce you to the level of a hireling. You are my niece; you and Nicholas Merle, in the North Country, are all the kindred left to me now that my wife has been taken." So Minnie settled at the "Ring o' Bells," and, being young and healthy, survived conditions that had thrust her aunt untimely into the grave. The old man never trusted his niece again after a day upon which he caught her helping two hungry tramps to bread and cheese, because Minnie's idea of a pennyworth was far more liberal than Mr. Merle's; but she stayed at the inn, encouraged to the dreary necessity by local friends, who hinted to her, behindher uncle's back, that such self-denial must in the long run find it...« less