The Argosy — page 112: what you’re looking at

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

100 Lady Grace. { told him he must be mistaken. May I enquire the purport of your ' visit, sir?” Charles laughed. Miss Dynevor was subject to changes of mood and manner, but he did not let them trouble him, any more than the boys and girls did. “I came to take tea with you for one thing, Miss Dynevor. And Mary has come home, I hear,” was his answer. “Yes ; she has returned,” stiffly responded Miss Dynevor. ‘But —you must be aware that it is not convenient to receive you this evening.” Charles looked at her: there was something in her voice, her manner, that he had never met before, and his pulses quickened with a sense of coming evil. “Or at any future time,” continued the lady, who had not taken a seat, or asked Charles to do so. “But why ?” exclaimed Charles. ‘ What have I done?’ “You cannot really need to enquire, Charles Baumgarten, and it will be particularly unpleasant to me to inform you,” said she. ‘ Nevertheless, I must press you to do so,” said Charles. “A man cannot meet a charge blindfold, Miss Dynevor.” She drew herself up; the flaxen curls seemed to bristle. ‘I saw you in a situation, sir, the night before last at the play, which— which—which—in fact, perfectly shocked me. ‘If, that dear defunct gentleman, the late Dean of Denham, had seen this,’ I breathed to myself, ‘he would have disowned his son—as we must do from this hour.’ And I came straight home, I avow to you, sir, and acquainted my brother, and said sufficient to my nieces to satisfy them that you were a black sheep. Since Mary returned, I have explained to her ; and—and—of course she will give you up.” Charles had listened to her with deference. ‘‘ Now will you please tell me, Miss Dynevor, where you saw me, and what the ‘ situation’ might be,” he said when she had concluded. “You are truly bold to ask it, Charles Baumgarten,” she re- torted. ‘But what else could I expect? No, sir; my communication is closed.” “‘T beg your pardon: your communication at present amounts to nothing. To continue it is due to me.” “Very due,” she sarcastically answered. ‘ And no less necessary than due, considering that you saw me as plainly as I saw you.” “Was it at the Haymarket theatre?” Miss Dynevor gave vent to a modest little scream, which she smothered in her handkerchief. ‘“Whether it was at the Haymarket or whether it was at Westmin- ‘ster Abbey, it need not be alluded to,” she retorted, ‘and I have never been subjected to speak of such things. You are a hypocrite, Charles Baumgarten ; it is what most young men of the present day are. I’ve heard them compared to whited sepulchres and I think the comparison a very good one. Our interview is at at end, sir.’ ( zed ITOORI comicbooks.com