The Argosy, Volume XXIV — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

4 Gabriel's Appointment. Repressing her granddaughter’s eager desire to overwhelm the guest with questions, and drag her all over the house to look at her treasures, she took care that Alice was refreshed and rested, without a word having been said of the portrait—persuading her to retire early, and accompanying her to her room, to see that she had all she wanted. Grace had been busy already, and Alice’s trunk was unpacked and everything in its place; and the elder lady’s eyes glanced with satisfaction at the books, mostly fresh and new, which had accom- panied the young traveller from the city. ‘You have good companions here, I see, my dear; your art wil} thrive all the better for their friendship,” she observed, with a sigh that betrayed the presence of a hidden sorrow, such as her exterior rarely revealed. Her ‘‘ good night” was accompanied by a few words of blessing which thrilled to Alice’s heart, and brought the dew into her eyes—so strange was the sound, and so sweet. “Tt must be like what one has read of having a grandmamma of one’s own,” she thought. ‘ Martin was quite right in telling me I should like her. JI am afraid she thinks me quite a child. To- morrow I will show her what I really am.” Alas! the morrow, which was to do so much, found the artist , in the depths of ignominious misery. A little imprudence and neglect of precautions on the journey had brought on raging toothache, and her day was spent in alternate fits of restlessness and prostration ; a piteous apology for neglect of duty being her response to Mrs. Salisbury’s kind attentions. Mrs. Salisbury was tender of her con- scientious feelings, and comforted her with good-natured assurances that no time was really lost, as Myra had a cold, and would, most likely, not have been able to sit. ‘They would both be the better for waiting another day. And she brought in a pile of books and en- gravings, and bade her lie on the sofa, and try to beguile the weary time ; and if she wished for medical advice, a messenger should be sent for Dr. Nelson. Alice thanked her gratefully, but in private resolved to hold out against, that. ‘‘T don’t want the doctor, Grace,” she said, when they were alone, ‘but I do wish I had Mr. Jones’s bottle of chloroform. There is none in the house, and it would do me more good than anything.” ‘““T beg your pardon, ma’am—zv/ose bottle did you say?” ‘Oh, don’t you know the story of Mr. Jones and the chloroform, which he had for his toothache, at the hotel where Mr. Bruce slept the first night he was in London—how the poor man mistook his own bedroom, and tried Mr. Bruce’s door in the night, and was so frightened at having done it, that in his hurry to get away he dropped his fur cap, with the phial in it? ” ‘‘T never heard it mentioned, Miss Kerr. It was a mistake, of course.” comicbooks.com