The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 154: what you’re looking at

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

346 UNCLE BENJAMIN’S PAST. for you a year—five years—ten, if necessary ; I will never marry anybody else; but we must not antagonize Uncle Benjamin.’’ | ‘‘I believe your business sense is better than mine, my darling, but I love you so that throwing away the best years of our lives, just to humor an old man’s whim, is very hard.’’ “Yes, itis hard. What can have made him so bitter against marriage? — I suppose he never was in love himself.’’ ‘Uncle Benjamin in love! It would be almost as easy to imagine him with wings. Oh, no. The popular notion that évery old bachelor has a love romance rankling in his heart does not apply to Uncle Benjamin. He is so just because he was made that way. And he has been confirmed, no doubt, by observation of unhappy marriages. From particular instances of undesirable wives, he has generalized that all women are alike.’’ ‘But I would not ruin you, Larry. I am not extravagant.”’ ‘‘I don’t doubt that, and I do not think you are likely to break nine inch dintier plates on my skull.”’ ““QOh, Larry! Did he say I would do that? What an awful old man !’’ 3 ‘“ He didn’t exactly affirm that you would do it, but suggested it as among the possibilities.’’ ‘“T’m sure he would never say such a ionvia. thing if he knew me.’’ ‘“No, of course he wouldn’t. But he does not know you, and never will if he can help it.”’ Nelly cogitated a few moments and then asked, ‘‘ Did you tell him whom you proposed to marry? ’’ ““No. He never gave me achance. Mentioning marriage to him was like shaking a red flag at a bull; it set him off at once.”’ ‘“Vou’re sure you did not mention my name?”’ ‘" I believe I spoke of you as Nelly, that was all.”’ ‘Then I shall make the acquaintance of His Ursine Highness and try if I cannot tame him.’’ ‘* How will you get at him ?”’ | “Your note yesterday came in one of your uncle’s business envelopes, and mother noticing it recalled that her dearest confidential friend when she ~ was a school girl was Aurelia Ann Dobley. ‘They had not met, she said, in twenty years, and she wondered if this Benjamin Dobley could be related to her Aurelia Ann.”’ ‘“ Related ? Why, she’s his sister.’’ ‘*So I imagined.’’ ‘“ She keeps house for him and isan old maid, with a will of her own and quite free in declaring it, pee one of the kindest hearted and best women alive. But I hardly see “You will in a minute. Mother will do anything I say. I intend that she shall call upon your aunt Aurelia Ann, renew their old friendship, and, if possible, procure an invitation for me to remain here in New York, with your aunt, for a fortnight, instead of going back home to Beverly with mother. I’m not through sightseeing yet, you know.’’ books al ©) =)