Life — December 26, 1895 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

16 spirit that is finally goaded beyond endurance, she arose and walked away. He followed and stood beside her, near the fire. “Very well, then, you shall have no more of it. I have annoyed you for the last——" “Did you do that?” she interrupted in an excited whis- per, catching him by the arm and pointing toward the wall. “Do what?” “The paper in that frame! Did you put it there?” He saw something white, like the corner of a note, pro- jecting from the inner edge of the frame that held the little portrait of his grandfather, “No. I did not.” In her agitation she appeared to forget her antipathy to the young man and the grasp upon his arm was not relaxed. “T will tell you something,” she went on, in the same hurried whisper. “No, I won't cither,” and withdrawing her hand, she advanced timidly toward the picture, took the paper from its place and went over to the window. There she read it very carefully, once, and then a secondtime. He had followed her across the room, and as she stood before him in the glow of the fading sunset, another and a deeper Lowering her eyes, and glow came creeping over her face. - LIFE: in a voice so faint that he bent forward to catch it, she said: “T think, on the whole, that I will tell you.” Then, turn- ing away her eyes to avoid his own, she continued: “ One evening, about this hour, a month or two ago, I was sitting in that old chair facing your port—your grandfather's por- trait—and I was wondering if the original of the face was as interesting as the picture.” “ Really, did you do that?” “But that was before meeting the obnoxious American who happens to resemble it.” “ That speech is more like you,” and he turned away and looked out the window. “Well, as I sat there I saw, in the dim light, the edge of a note, and as I watched the little white point it came further and further out, as if slowly pushed from behind. I thought I must be dreaming, but there it certainly was, and no human hands were near it. You may think me silly, but I was frightened and left the room. I came back, however, mustered all my‘courage and took it to my chamber. There were two lines : “If in all this world there’s a girl like you, ‘Then count me a lover staunch and true.” CHRISTMAS IN THE SUBURBS OF CAIRO. comicbooks.com