The Argosy — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

80 The Missing Rubies. But she did not want to go. The thought of the visit was so dreadful to her, that she longed to burst out crying like a child, and tell Miss Lindrick to go away. It was in vain that she scolded herself for this senseless reluctance to accept the Lindricks’ civility. She felt like a condemned criminal when she told Alma that she should be “very happy to come.” But this appalling falsehood was uttered in so sweet a voice, and was accompanied by so gentle a glance from the deep-blue eyes, that Alma could find no fault in the girl's manner. Ashamed of her secret ingratitude, Beatrice tried to atone for it by being as well- behaved as possible. She even pressed Miss Lindrick’s hand at part- ing, and made some pretty little speech that sounded very nicely indeed. And then, when the door had closed on her unwelcome visitor, she hurried upstairs and bolted herself into her own room, there to cry in peace. ‘Oh, if Mr. Redburn had never sought me out, how much happier I should have been!” she sobbed. “If I go away to that place, I think some evil thing will happen to me. Did not Godwin’s worst troubles come to him at Fairbridge?” She went downstairs with such evident traces of tears on her face, that Harriet (almost for the first time) was thoroughly angry with her pet. Evento Mr. Milton, Beatrice’s distress appeared so utterly un- reasonable and absurd that he could not offer a word of sympathy. Not one of her friends could understand this strange unwillingness to make new acquaintances ; and nothing seemed to be left to her but resignation. She was to go to the Lindricks in the third week in May. Mr. Redburn had seen a great deal of her during his short stay in town, and further intercourse had strengthened his interest in her con- siderably. Yet, as Harriet angrily declared, Beatrice had not made the slightest effort to win his favour. In his presence, she had seemed so cold and apathetic that it was a marvel that his liking continued. But she could not put him out. of humour with his friend’sdaughter, let her do what she would. And the old man evi- dently regarded her as the most interesting thing that was left to him in life, It chanced that Godwin was a good deal occupied just before the time of her departure. And, well as he loved her, he could not sympathise with her extraordinary reluctance to leave town for a visit to Fairbridge. His love was as free from worldliness as it was pos- sible for any attachment to be, but he could not be blind to the advan- tages of Mr. Redburn’s affection for his betrothed. It was well-nigh impossible for the old man’s life to hold out much longer; Beatrice, well-dowered, might come to Godwin’s home far sooner than he had ever dared to hope. But she refused to listen to the voice of the charmer, and stopped her ears with an obstinacy that quite astonished him. When he spoke, sensibly enough, of prudence and policy, comicbooks.com