The Argosy, Volume XXIV — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

2 Gabriel’s Appointment. It had been gradually dawning upon Grace’s mind, during the last few weeks, that Darch was trying to work her up, by degrees, to do some- thing which he durst not openly mention. Whether to show his own power, or to weaken her scruples by force of habit, he had persisted, latterly, in compelling her to meet him at such hours and in such places as must. expose her to observation, and make concealment almost a matter of deceit. The misery it was to her to conceal what she did and felt from those she loved and trusted, was brought to a climax by the attempt referred to by Honor, in her conversation with Lucy ; though, as often happens when only half a secret is overheard, the girl had misstated the facts. There had been a talk, at the table of Granny Hughes, about the attempt on Mr. Bruce; and Tonio, who was present, had suggested, as if half in joke half in earnest, that the gentleman wore a charm round his neck, on which his luck and that of his love depended ; and Darch had looked at Grace, and whispered that if it were so, it would be worth any risk to get it. On their being alone together in the street he had reverted to the subject, and said, if such things were true, that by getting a charm into your own hands you could secure your own happiness and that of the person you loved, it was your duty to risk being called hard names. He was sure, if it came to the point, that his Grace would be true-hearted enough to take her chance—that she would rather all the parsons and ladies condemned her, unjustly, than let slip an opportunity of making their two selves rich and happy. Her answers at first were good- humouredly playful, as if the subject could only be treated as a joke; but he persisted so warmly in the argument that she at last grew alarmed, and so pointedly inquired into his meaning that he was obliged to turn the laugh against her, for having supposed he could be in earnest. The very next day, as we have seen, he summoned her in the middi® of her work ; and this time his proposal could not be supposed to be in jest, for he wanted her to consent to a secret marriage. He would leave her perfectly free afterwards, and not claim her till her home was ready, but he could not rest till she was his own by right at last, and if she loved him she would consent. | If she loved him! What a mockery of words it seemed to her, when he would not see that such a step, with all the deceit it must involve, would lower her in everyone’s eyes, whether the truth were discovered or not! Her refusal—which no persuasion could make her retract—either excited his real resentment, or led to his assuming - a resentful tone ; and they parted on sorrowful terms—each reproach- ing the other—though every word she uttered was a stab to Grace’s own heart. Her one desire then was to put herself out of his reach for a time; and when a difficulty arose about an attendant for Alice Kerr, she had offered herself to Miss Leicester with an eagerness which must have struck that young lady, but for her own pre-occupa- tion of mind. Warmly interested for her two humble friends, she hoped their prospects would be permanently brightened by becoming. comicbooks.com on F