The Argosy — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

The Village Blacksmtth. 7 “ Never mind; you should not run up the hill. Where have you been ?” Janet hesitated. Perhaps the key was tiresome to fit in the lock she was unfastening, for her fingers trembled and her colour deepened as she answered : ‘““T met young Mr. Reginald, and he stopped to talk to me about Aunt Norah and the School Board meeting.” This was the truth, but it was not the whole truth. The whole truth Reuben did not learn for many a day. ‘** And then I met that horrid Mark Brown, and he stopped me.” ‘* Not for long, I expect,” said Reuben. *‘ Too long to please me,” said Janet, as she prepared to make the tea, in which occupation she soon appeared to be absorbed. But in reality her thoughts were far away from such prosaic subjects as kettles which refuse to boil and bread which objects to be toasted. Her thoughts were centred in an earthly paradise, of which she was the queen, and a certain dark-eyed man, a few years older than her- self, and in a different sphere of life, the king. But she was the reigning sovereign, for the king knelt at her feet. A fool’s paradise, no doubt, easily destroyed, but Janet is not the first person who has dwelt in so fragile a structure, and it is probable she will not be the last. Although so highly cultivated are we now- a-days that there seems a great risk that such old-fashioned flowers as love and romance will be rooted up and thrown away as weeds to make room for the more showy and less sweet plants of luxury and culture. CHAPTER II. MR. RYOT TEMPEST TAKES THE CHAIR. Mr. Ryor TEMPEST was shy, therefore he disliked presiding at meetings ; he was also proud and inconsistent, therefore he accepted the position when invited to do so. He disliked presiding and yet he liked to bein the chair, It was, in his opinion, a sort of tacit acknow- ledgment that he was superior to his neighbours, and, deeply im- pressed with this view himself, he liked others to acknowledge it. Nevertheless, had he been aware that Mrs. Canter was to be brought before him on this occasion, he would have abdicated his position in favour of a brother clergyman. As it was he seriously contemplated feigning a sudden attack of illness before her case came on; he was such a martyr to dyspepsia that he could easily have done so without arousing suspicion. However, his valour got the better of his nervousness, and, having kept Mrs. Canter waiting till the rest of the business was concluded, he ordered her to be shown in. He hoped by this delay to have tired her out and reduced her to comparative meekness, but in this he was mistaken. Mrs. Canter GOnnGaoOo SS CO