The Argosy — page 212: what you’re looking at

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

198 A Marriage from the Stage. “You are heartless,” she cried, raising her head and pushing him from her. ‘If you hate me, tell me so and I will go. I will not bear this state of things ; I cannot.” Was it by some strange fatality that at this instant the door opened and Gabriel entered? His face was unusually pale, and his sombre eyes flashed as he turned them upon Arthur. Mrs. Raughan swept away from them and went to her favourite seat. Raughan stared for . @ moment and then passed out. In agonising silence Claudia sat, half stunned, waiting till the man should arrange the table near her chair, finish his menial duties, and then leave her alone to weep. Gabriel took the books off her table and came back with coffee, his face working painfully with what he was forced to suppress. * Put it down,” she whispered, as he stood before her with the tray in his trembling hands. The tray was at her side in a moment, and, as she raised her eyes to bid him go, she saw the freed hands give a passionate gesture, and heard the man groan as he left the room. ‘‘ That man cannot be a servant, an inferior!” she thought. ‘What: brings him here ?” An hour or two later, Arthur, who had’ not forgotten the recent unpleasant scene, came down to the drawing-room, and, finding the windows open, walked out upon the terrace. The mist was thick and the air cold for a spring night. “Are you mad, Claudia?” he exclaimed, flicking the end of his cigar into the pond below the terrace. Mrs, Raughan was leaning on the low wall as if to watch the moonbeams that crept over the mist and fell brightly on to the water below. “Why are you stopping out here on a damp night, making a tragedy about nothing?” he continued. ‘You are really too pre- posterously unreasonable. I shall soon lose my temper with you.” Mrs. Raughan moved, turned her dark eyes slowly upon him and seemed about to make an appeal. Arthur, who hated anything in the shape of a scene, retreated a step and lowered his eyes. This was more than his wife could bear. “ You talk to me of losing your temper,” she cried, grasping his arm and speaking with intense scorn. ‘“ You, who haven’t as much passion in your whole body as I have in my little finger!” Arthur attempted feebly to release his arm, utterly taken aback by the turn things were taking. “You shall not go,” she replied to his silent remonstrance. ‘“ You shall not go till you have answered me some questions.” Raughan had recovered himself now, and was determined to keep his temper, if possible, and to treat her folly with good-natured contempt. “I suppose I must listen to a long tirade; so begin at once, ‘lease. Only, be as brief as you can, and don’t rouse the whole 5 with your voice.” she — comicbooks.com