The Mission of Poubalov — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

24 AN IMPERFECT VISION. and while his friends commended the idea with noisy laughter, Miss Lizzie sat silent, sipping her tea with down- cast eyes. Shortly afterward the ladies withdrew, and Palovna immediately began to tease Strobel about Lizzie. ‘‘On my word, Ivan,’’ he cried, ‘‘you begin very badly. If you show her what a fine hand you have for kitchen- work, you’ll never have any time to yourself after you’re married. It’safine thing to serve tea to your friends when you’re a bachelor, but fancy a man setting the ket- tle to boil for his wife! Great Scott! what a picture!”’ Both visitors laughed heartily, but Strobel, with a grave smile, held up one hand deprecatingly. ‘I don’t mind your raillery in the least,’’ he said, ‘‘but it does injustice to the young lady who is the innocent subject of it rather than myself. I’m glad you came in as you did, for I have something to tell you, and, in fact, it was to tell Mrs. White and Lizzie the same thing that I in- vited them to take tea with me. I am engaged to Miss Hilman.”’ ‘I’m mighty glad to hear it, and I congratulate you,’”’ exclaimed Ralph, jumping up and grasping Ivan by the hand. ‘‘And |, too,’’ said Paul, not less sincerely; ‘‘pardon my joking. I hadn’t suspected that the wind blew from that direction. When is it to be?’’ Then Strobel told them about his plans, and from that day until this minute, when Paul stood by the weeping landlady, with her daughter’s incoherent letter in his hand, he had never associated Ivan and Lizzie in any other way than as ordinary friends. When, earlier in the afternoon, Mrs. White had said something that seemed to suggest the possibility that they had gone away together, — Paul’s indignation had been aroused, and it was with an effort that he had mastered his tongue, which fairly burned to deny such an outrageous assumption. He had dismissed the thought later, with the conviction that Mrs. White could not have realized the true significance of her words. Eomichbooks.com