The Argosy — page 366: what you’re looking at

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

348 The Missing Rubtes. ‘© When you are married, child? Go on.” “It is not easy to go on, when one is ruthlessly interrupted,” said Beatrice, with dignity. ‘When I am a matron, Godwin, I intend to be a quiet, self-restrained person. Just now you were saying some- thing about a good angel. Don’t you think that it is Mr. Vorden- berg who deserves that name? We can never repay all that he has done for us.” “He is a wonderful man,” replied Godwin, thoughtfully. “You know I have decided to leave the task of proving my innocence entirely in his hands. He asked this of me.” _ “You are right, quite right to let him do it in his own way,” Beatrice spoke earnestly. ‘‘ Depend upon it that anything he under- takes will be thoroughly done. What strange powers he has! And yet, although we all feel that there is something mysterious about him, we are never afraid to trust him.” “ He is the best of friends,” said Godwin, warmly. ‘As good a friend as Bassanio was to that poor devil of an Antonio. There is a shock in store for the Countess Gradizoff! If she only knew what was coming, I believe she would fly the country !” “Aunt Jane will venture to love her boy again,” said Beatrice, with a smile, remembering the sweet old woman. “I wonder if Aunt Dorothy will ever look on me graciously in time to come? You see, I shall never more appear in Fairbridge in the character of Mr. Red- burn’s adopted daughter. Miss Earle’s favour was bestowed on the heiress, not on poor Beatrice Ward. But I think Aunt Jane liked me for my own sake.” “They will all like you for your own sake, by-and-bye. My uncle Charles is a just man, and when certain proofs are laid before him, he will act fairly. I have not, I confess, any strong affection for Uncle Charles, but I can rely on his sense of right. As to old Redburn’s fortune, dear, we can do without it. Mr. Corder has plainly declared his intention of putting me in the place of his lost son.” Beatrice looked away to the old house, standing in the midst of fragrant shade and slowly-changing sunlight. She wanted to be quite certain that everything was real—these stately trees with their wealth of shadow and foliage—these afternoon glories filling up every space. Her eyes came back to her lover, happy, half-bewildered, wholly satisfied. “ Oh, how good everyone is to us!” said she, clasping her hands, with a pretty, childish gesture. ‘I am so glad, Godwin, that our money is not to come through me. Now it will be for you to bestow, and for me to receive. I never liked the idea of being an heiress while you were a poor man. Everything is going to be as it ought to be. And I am wicked enough to feel that I shall enjoy Mr. Red- burn’s discomfiture. Nothing will punish him more than to know that we really have no need of him.” They began to walk slowly back through the meadows; to the river- comicbooks.com