The Argosy — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

66 The Missing Rubies. to have a substantial one when the time came for wearing it. It would be too distressing to find yourself an old woman with only a thin, thread-like circlet on the third finger of your left hand. As she turned into Bruton Street, she wondered, oh, foolish Beatrice ! whether Mrs. Wyville would detect any subtle change in her look and manner? But the widow, at no time a keen observer, was now fully occupied with thoughts of her dinner-party and the arrival of her expected guest. Very little teaching was got through that morning ; the mother had so many important things to say to Miss Ward, that Lily and Daisy shut their books and gave three cheers for a holiday. ‘* Did I ever tell you how I first met Madame Valerot, Beatrice?” she said, when the last cheer had died away, and the children, being quite breathless, were reduced to silence. ‘‘ It was when I was stay- ing with my sister-in-law in Paris; Marie knows the most delightful people, and always gives the most perfect entertainments. Well, one evening she introduced me to her last favourite, the young wife of an immensely rich financier, Monsieur Valerot. The husband was a man of seventy ; the wife a lovely woman of two or three-and-twenty ; and I knew, of course, that on her side there could be none of the right kind of love. However, such matches are made every day ; and Pauline Valerot certainly behaved perfectly, not a breath of slander ever touched her name.” ‘*T thought she was a widow,” remarked Beatrice. “She is as good as a widow now. They had not been married many months when her husband became hopelessly insane. The doctors would not let her live with him ; and they put him into safe keeping, and left her a rich woman, alone in the world. Some people said that the relations who managed Monsieur Valerot’s affairs, had allowed her only a very moderate income. But that I cannot believe. She must, I am sure, have ample means at her command ; and she behaves beautifully, as she always did. Poor dear Pauline!” ‘‘ Have you known her long?” Beatrice asked. “Ob, no. It was in the spring of this year that we met. She is one of those charming women who win your heart at once.” Beatrice thought that Mrs. Wyville was very easily won. “We have kept up a correspondence,” the widow went on. “* Pauline’s letters are as charming as herself. It was a great surprise and pleasure to hear that she was coming to London. Of course I begged her to stay here ; and I should be only too glad if she would share my home.” ‘You cannot persuade her to live with you ?” “No; I wish I could. But she says that trouble has made her quite morbid at times. Her nerves are out of order, and she wants to take quiet apartments and put herself under a doctor’s care. These noisy children would be too much for her.” Here Daisy promptly announced her intention of being too much comicbooks.com