The Argosy — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

Gwen. . 113 But whatever Gwen might feel on the subject, she kept it most scrupulously to herself, and neither her father nor mother guessed at her disappointment. Neither did they trouble themselves much more about Mr. Dallas’s sudden resolve and as sudden alteration. Mrs. Ellis had, indeed, told her husband of his hurried confidence, and they had agreed that it would be better not to mention him much in their letters to Gwen, and to ask Miss Metcalfe to time Gwen’s return after the college break-up day. But there the matter had dropped, and had become so entirely a thing of the past that neither of them foresaw any difficulty in Gwen’s final return home now, as a finished young lady, at the sedate age of nineteen. And even had they still retained any misgivings, there would seem no need to trouble about it any more, as Mr. Dallas had applied for the Head-Mastership of the Grammar School at G——, and Dr. Ellis little doubted that he would get it, so good were his testimonials and so high his degree. And although he still dreaded losing him, yet Gwen’s approaching return reconciled him somewhat to the prospect of his loss. It was a lovely June afternoon as the train, which was carrying many happy hearts homewards, stopped at a busy station and deposited amongst other passengers, a tall, stately girl, noticeable even amid the throng, for the bright youthfulness of her whole ap- pearance, the poise of her head, and the beaming look of anticipation on her face. “No one has come to meet me. Ah! then I shall arrive before . my letter. What fun! How surprised they will be to see me a week before the time! Let me see, it is a half-holiday. The boys will be playing cricket : how I should love to go down amongst them! I don’t feel a bit like a grown-up young lady. How fortunate for me that Miss Metcalfe should have felt it necessary to close her school earlier for fear of the epidemic that was spreading all around us. Now I shall be in time to see the boys and all of them,” said Gwen to herself, a blush spreading over her face as she thus vaguely con- cluded her self-communings. Yes, the boys were at cricket in the big field; and Gwen leant forward eagerly in her open cab as it drove around the gravel sweep, searching for a familiar form. And even as she did so her eyes en- countered a pair of grey eyes fixed in surprised admiration upon her. Mr. Dallas was inside the field, leaning upon the railings, and talking with another master who was standing on the gravel without. Sud- denly the sound of wheels attracted his attention, and looking up carelessly, he was transfixed by the apparition of Gwen in all her fresh fascination. The blush was still upon her cheek, the light of eager expectancy in her eyes. ‘To Mr. Dallas’s bewildered brain she looked like some beautiful impersonation of youth, something alto- gether above and beyond this work-a-day world, in her pure loveli- ness. Not that Gwen was strictly speaking lovely, but in his_eyes she comicbooks.conl