Vivienne

Vivienne is a collection of eight books that details the life of Vivienne, a French woman, penned by Rita. Eliza Humphreys (aka Rita) was an English novelist known for creating stories with strong female central characters. Excerpt: «The old woman left the room, and Vivienne and Madame Pitteri resumed their efforts at restoring the suspended animation to the senseless figure before them. How long the time seemed as they waited for medical help! What an eternity of horror were those anxious moments when the white, still face was locked in that rigid semblance of death, and neither pulse nor heart-beat gave any sign of returning life! At last, however, the physician arrived—the little bare-footed Italian lad, who worked and ran errands for Maruccio, having overtaken him at a short distance from the villa, and brought him back with all speed, as he had been ordered. Very grave and anxious he looked as he helped to raise the young man and laid him on the couch while he tried to check the fearful hemorrhage slowly and surely draining the life-blood from his lungs.»