The Argosy — page 373: what you’re looking at

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

The Missing Rubies. 355 “Poor child; she had enough to make her ill,” said Jane, warmly. ‘TI suppose she will soon be married, now that Godwin is a rich man.” “Is he, indeed, a rich man?” Alma asked. She spoke in a composed tone; but her face had perceptibly paled. “Yes,” Jane responded. ‘ Mr. Corder—a very wealthy merchant —has taken him into partnership. I can’t imagine Godwin having anything to do with trade; he is the first of the Earles who ever did. But everybody seems to go into business nowadays.” The two women parted, and as Alma walked away down the sun- shiny street her heart was heavy within her. How differently she would have acted, if she could but have foreseen this change in Godwin’s circumstances ! She felt sick and weary of everything that day. The air was full of sweet scents ; tall white lilies were abloom in the prim little gardens in front of the old houses; the sleepy town was so still and bright that it seemed as if no change could ever come to such a tranquil, old-fashioned place. She went on to the ivied bridge that spanned the river, and looked idly down at the green stems and leaves that were swaying with the ripple of its waters. The stream flashed merrily in the sunshine, singing its glad song. Godwin had liked this spot. He would bring his wife here some day. Perhaps his children would come and sail their toy-boats on this sparkling tide. The old house would be his; all the good things that had seemed withheld for ever would be freely poured at his feet. Beatrice, in her simplicity, had been wiser than Alma, with her worldly wisdom. It sometimes happens that the romantic fool wins a prize that policy and discretion have missed. If Alma had hada little patience—if she had only been true a little longer to her old lover, she would have got the very things for which her soul had always pined. Canon Earle’s letters had spoiled all the Lindricks’ plans, and filled them with confusion and dismay. “By George, Lindrick,” old Redburn had said to the Colonel, “ it seems that you misled me about young Earle. He is prepared to prove his innocence—do you understand that? Confound it alto- gether, you have made me look like a fool !” “‘This may be merely a piece of swagger,” the Colonel had replied. “If his innocence could be proved, why wasn’t it done sooner ?” But although he spoke coolly, Colonel Lindrick was ill at ease. Matters had taken an unexpected turn. His reputation for saga- city, which he had built up so carefully, was about to be shivered to atoms, Old Redburn was a man who opened his purse-strings- readily for comichbooks.con