The Argosy — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

14 The Village Blacksmith. did not care for society himself, and his wife had little in common with the surrounding Protestants, many of whom looked upon her as a heretic. So she had meekly acquiesced when she found her married life was to be almost as secluded as that of the convent in which she was educated. | Now that Vera was grown up and panted after the world and its pleasures as eagerly as a young race-horse longs for the signal which is to start him on the race, Mrs. Tempest regretted that she had submitted so entirely to her husband’s wishes in this matter ; regretted it for her children’s sake; for Vera’s especially ; not for her own. For herself she had no wish to go into society. She looked upon the world, of which she was as ignorant as her daughter, as the spot in the battle-field of life in which the battle raged fiercest, where the enemy pressed hardest, where the slaughter was greatest; and she had'no desire to enter the front ranks of the fighting army, scarcely one soldier of which could hope to escape unwounded. Soon after Mr. Ryot Tempest left the room, Vera returned. She had changed her dress and coiled up her pretty hair. Her slight, graceful figure was seen to perfection in the well-cut cloth dress she wore, and the large crimson Gainsborough hat and ostrich feather became her exceedingly. There was something very foreign-looking about her. She had none of the pink-and-white beauty of English girls, Her skin was spotless, but it was of a pale olive tint; her features were delicately cut and very mobile ; whilst the striking con- trast of her fair hair and dark, lustrous eyes, with their long black lashes, made her face very remarkable, and her utter freedom from self-conscious vanity was very attractive. “What a fright I looked, mamma, didn’t I? If you had only lent me a rosary to hang at my side, I should have taken in even the good nuns opposite. I wish Norah could have seen me! I must go and tell her how splendidly I took papa in. So good-bye for the present.” “Stay, Vera. Your father does not wish you to go to Norah to-day ; she has offended him,” said Mrs, Tempest in French, for she rarely spoke English to Vera. * But that is all the more reason why I should go, mother. I want to hear all about it,” said Vera. ‘Send Reggie, and stay with me. You must not disobey your father. And perhaps, if you are very good, I will tell you how I came to possess that Dominican habit. By-the-bye, what have you done with it?” “Put it carefully away in my wardrobe. If ever I want to run away it will be a famous disguise, since not even my own father recognised me.” ‘Vera, Vera! you terrify me. Why are you so wild? You grow more like my poor sister Véronique every day.” conniclooolkks CO