The Argosy — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

Edina. 9 and more? And we are going to stay on here for a time—and that | will save my pocket.” It was simply impossible tor Frank Raynor to see a difficulty of this kind, or indeed of any kind, and not help to relieve it if he had help in his power. That he would himself very speedily require the money he was now giving away, was all too probable: but he was content to forget that in Charley’s need. The one individual person in all the house that Charles would have kept from the knowledge of his folly—and in his repentance he did look upon it as folly most extreme—was his mother. He loved her dearly ; and he had the grace to be ashamed, for her sake, of what he had done, and to hope that she would never know it. A most fallacious hope, as he was soon,to find, for Major Raynor had taken up the news to her with open mouth. She was sitting on the low sofa in her dressing-roomi that evening at dusk, when Charles went in. The firelight played on her face, showing its look of utter weariness, and the traces of tears. ‘““What’s the matter, mother?” he asked, sitting down beside her and taking her hand. “ Are you ill?” “Not ill, Charley,” she answered. ‘Only tired and—and out of sorts.” ‘“‘ What has tired you? Last night, I suppose. But you have been resting all day.” “ Not last night particularly, So much fast living does not suit me.” “ Fast living!” exclaimed Charles in a wondering accent. “Is it the gravies ?—or the plum-puddings ?” Mrs, Raynor could not forbear a smile. ‘I was not thinking of the table, Charles: the gravies and the puddings. We seem to have no rest. It is excitement always, nothing but excitement. We went out last night ; we go out to dinner to-morrow night ; people come here the next night. Every day that we are at home there’s something ; if it’s not luncheon and afternoon tea, it’s dinner; and if it’s not dinner, it's supper. I have to think of it all; the entertainments and the dress, and everything; and to go out when you go; and—and I fear it is getting rather too much for me.” “You lie up, mother, for a few days,” advised Charles affectionately. “Keep here by your own fire, and turn things over to Alice and the servants. You will soon be all right again.” Mrs. Raynor did not answer. She had Charles’s hand now, holding it between both of hers, and was looking steadfastly at the flickering . blaze. A silence ensued. Charles lost himself in a train of thought. — ‘“‘ What about this trouble of yours, Charley ?” It was a very unpleasant waking-up for him. Of all things, this was what he had wanted kept from her. His ingenuous face—and it was an ingenuous face in spite of the wine bills—flushed deeply with annoyance. (soogle comicbooks.com