The Argosy — page 383: what you’re looking at

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

In a Dangerous Strait. 365 Something peculiar in his tone struck Miss Ray’s ear. ‘ You speak as though you were under an obligation to him, Gilbert !” ‘So I am—for his society. It is seldom I have an opportunity of talking to a manof his stamp—a cultured and accomplished gentle- man. Why you dislike him I cannot imagine.” ‘“‘T hardly know myself,” she acknowledged ; “but I do dislike and distrust him heartily, in spite of his culture and accomplishments ; and I can’t get it out of my mind that he has some hidden motive in coming here.” Gilbert glanced at her pretty face with a smile. She coloured and looked annoyed. ‘* Qh, it is not on my account that he began his visits here, if that is what you mean,” she said resentfully. ‘He took to haunting your workroom, and inviting you to his house long before he saw me or your mother. I cannot divest myself of the feeling that there’s a mystery about him which we can’t fathom. Who and what is he, to begin with?” ‘* That is easily answered, Jeanie. He is a political refugee; the last surviving member of an old and noble family, noted for devotion to the House of Orleans, and therefore in bad odour with the present Imperial Government. I believe, in fact, that he has been concerned in a conspiracy against it, and still belongs to a secret Royalist Society.” ‘“‘ Ah ; I saw him in the town the other day with an elderly French- man who looked very like a ‘ conspirator.’ ” ‘* Had he a cloak and lantern 4 la Guy Fawkes ?” “No; but he had an ugly sinister face, and a furtive sort of ex- pression, as if he were accustomed to being watched,” answered Jeanie. ‘‘M. de Fontenay and he were in such close confabulation that they did not see me pass. They were talking secrets, evidently— plotting, perhaps.” He laughed. ‘Very likely. But their plots are no business of ours, Jeanie.” . ‘*No—so long as you are not drawn into them. I have fancied lately—don’t be angry, Gilbert—that there is a sort of secret understanding between you and M. de Fontenay; and I have feared ——” ‘That I too was turning conspirator?” he suggested, with a look of amusement. ‘Make your mind quite easy on that score, my child. I never kept a secret in my life; at least a He checked himself with some embarrassment, and left the sentence unfinished. Drawing her hand through his arm he led her away. The curtains were closed, but the lamp was not yet lighted, when they entered the parlour; a homely little room enough, with its worn carpet and plain furniture, yet snug and cheerful, and bearing evidences of taste and refinement in the few well-chosen) ornaments ; comicbooks.com