The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

120 AN ARITHMETICAL PUZZLE. ‘It’s beyond me, my dear boy ; and the only suggestion I have to make is, that we dress as soon as possible, and go down for an explanation.”’ : Less than an hour later, two very pale, but determined young men, might have been seen descending to the hall at the foot of the grand staircase. And, very near the middle of said hall, they were met by a portly, dignified ‘ Cuban gentleman, gray haired and white mustached,-with an unmistakable haughty air But pshaw! You must have guessed already that he was none other than our companion of the morning and of yesterday. And, leaning on each arm was a2 ravishingly beautiful maiden, garbed most fetchingly, with diamond bright eyes, which were deeply dark ; cheeks like damask roses, lips like cleft pomegranates, and But of course, you have guessed who they were! I say ‘‘were,’’ because—well, because they have since discarded their patronymic, and one is now Mrs. Anita Imray, and the other Mrs. Constancia Golding. Of course, we didn’t deserve: such lovely prizes ; in very truth, we had been too much humiliated to aspire at all. But, as my Anita has since confided to me, they felt they owed us something, for robbing us of our revolvers ! Having been educated at Vassar, they had understood every word we said on the train, and, with their papa’s consent, resolved to resent our aspersion — of Cuban women—as they chose to call it. Our meekness in affliction had excited their sympathy ; sympathy, you know, is akin to love; love was what they wanted, though perhaps they didn’t know it, then; and the upshot of it was, that we married the highwaywomen. fred A. Ober. AN ARITHMETICAL PUZZLE. SHE jilted me and scorned my suit, A inaid of summers twenty, A fair coquette with roguish eyes Who had of lovers plenty. I burned my ships and rushed away, And voyed that I’d forget her And once again as happy be As if I'd never met her. Though years and years have passed since then, Though I’ve had sweethearts plenty, My earliest ideal love To me still seems but twenty. And strange to say when yesterday I met this maid and told her My foolish fancy, she but frowned And claimed to be no older. ‘ comicbook