The Argosy — page 55: what you’re looking at

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

Princess Eleanor. 45 Werdan was lying on the sofa, a cigarette in his mouth, a morning paper in his hands. On my entrance he looked up, and before I could utter a word, he said : “Oh, you delightful fellow! You have behaved beautifully, upon my word. Your point d’honneur is beyond all doubt now. Come to my arms, and let us be brothers !” Geoffrey! I tore the paper from his hands—for he was half-covering his face with it—and claimed back my word in the briefest way possible ; telling him that I required it to clear myself before those who thought themselves vilely betrayed. * And if I do not give you back that word of yours?” he asked in a careless tone. I read his anxiety in his look, however. He wished to find out if my silence were safe before he dared refuse. With more than human force I mastered my rage, and walked up _tohim. He had risen by this time. With both eyes fixed on his, I ° said, slowly accentuating every word : “You have no right to say #f you did not give it back. My folly, in rashly giving my word, I atoned for in yesterday’s dreadful hour. You must now do all you can to justify me. How you will manage that is your own business. You have robbed me of the esteem of those I cared for most in all the world; you have stained my name, so as to ruin me perhaps for a lifetime. You cannot intend to be so vile as to continue your shameless game with me! My fame, my name, my honour, perhaps my life, are at stake.” “Do not so excite yourself, my dear fellow, and listen in your turn I have given my uncle that picture, saying I had bought it. On the day he received it, he made a will in my favour, and has istered the same. By it I am his only heir, heir to all his property and titles. If the good old man hears but a word of this whole affair, I gm ruined. Not only will he disinherit me, but he will also stop the generous allowance upon which I have for years chiefly existed. You see that my life, my honour, my name, are also at stake. Now I ask you, will the world be most sorry if Walter Impach be lost to it, or if it miss, for ever, Oscar Count Werdan ? Should you refuse to see where the advantage lies, I will speak yet more plainly, and open your eyes to necessity. I have the right wholly on my side, by having been careful enough to demand your word of honour, in case of such an emergency as has now happened. Why on earth this stupid godfather came back from the Kaffirs in Africa just now, I really cannot tell. And why you confessed that the copy was from your hand, you will be best able to explain.” I stood speechless with astonishment at his impudence, and felt my rage getting the better of me. He walked to the window, looked out of it for a few moments, drummed on the panes with his fingers, and looking back towards me at last, continued : comiicbootes.cona