The Argosy — page 197: what you’re looking at

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

Euina. 183 corner of the drawers amid the finery, and sat down near, facing the side of the bed and pausing in the act of taking off his coat. A night or two ago, for this was by no means the first time he had sat down in his chamber to con the sayings of young Marlowe, he took his coat off, dropped asleep, and woke up with the cold in his arms when the night was half over. So he kept the coat on now. Precisely the same event took place : Charles fell asleep. Tired with his day’s journey, he had not studied the book five minutes when it fell from his hands. He was in a sound slumber. How long he remained in it he never knew, but he was awakened by a shout and a cry. Fire! A shout and a cry, and a great glare of light. Fire? Yes, it was fire. Whether Charles had thrown out his arm in his sleep and turned the candle over, or whether a spark from it had shot out spontaneously, he knew not, never would know ; but the pile of finery, lying there, had caught light. The flames had penetrated to the bed, and awakened Alfred. It was Alfred who shouted the alarm. Perhaps Charles owed his life to the fact that he had kept his coat on: its sleeve was scorched. These scenes have been often described before: it is of no use to detail them here. A household aroused in the depth of the night; terrified women and children shrieking and running ; flames mounting, smoke suffocating. They all escaped with life, taking réfuge at the dwelling of a neighbour ; but the house and its contents were burnt to the ground. “My DEAR EpIna,—I never began a letter like this in all my life ; it will have nothing in it but ill-news and misery. Whether I am doing wrong in writing to you, I hardly know. My mother would not write. She feels a delicacy in disclosing our calamities to you, after your gene- rous kindness in providing us with a home; and she must be ashamed to tell you of me. The home is lost, Edina, and I am the cause. *‘T am too wretched to go into details; and, if I did, you might not have patience to read them; so I will tell the story in as few words as I can. We—I, Alice, and the Earles: you may remember them as living in the low, square house, near the church—were going to act a play, ‘ She Stoops to Conquer.’ I sat up last Wednesday night to study my part,. dropped asleep, and somehow the candle set light to some stage dresses that were lying ready in my chamber. When I woke up, the room was in flames. None of usare hurt; but the house is burnt ; and i a that was in it. “That is not all. I hate to make this next confession to you worse than I hated the last. The insurance on the furniture had not been effected. I had put it off and off, though my mother urged me more than once to go and do it. “You have spoken sometimes, Edina, of the necessity of acting so that we may enjoy a peaceful conscience. If you only repre what comicbooks.com