Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

100 WOMEN ARE WITCHES. ters were often most highly favored by nature. Dick could not understand it and simply would not try. No doubt, on the whole, Arthur had madea lucky escape, if he would only regard it so—marriage was such a lottery, always. But stil, in this particular case, if brought to the point, Dick would have been forced to acknowledge that he more than half believed this match might not have proved an unhappy one. But now there seemed absolutely no chance whatever of Fate’s trying what she could do to make or mar their lives; she was balked at the start. For his part, Dick inclined to the opinion that, occasionally, the natural course of events is the most satisfactory in the end, and that either to force, or attempt to avoid events, is frequent- ly a mistake, and of this he tried to convince the more im- petuous Arthur. : Keep cool and act with reference to the cards Fate sees fit to deal you, he urged. There are just as many hearts and diamonds as there are clubs and spades in the pack, and the goddess being a woman, will not always frown, lest you think her unable to smile. And to this constant press- ure Arthur yielded somewhat; his spells of despondency erew shorter and less frequent, and, one day, when he asked Dick to help him to make up a party to go South on his yacht as soon as she could be put into commission, the latter rejoiced exceedingly. He concluded that Arthur was beginning to ‘‘come around’’ very nicely, as he had _ be- lieved he would, and, it may be inferred, he lost no time in assisting him to make out his list. Dick did not leave him to himself any more than he could help, fully comprehending that a man in his feverish frame of mind, frequently either does something rash, or else becomes morose, and Arthur grew to lean and. denend