The Argosy — page 364: what you’re looking at

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

348 “We Fell Out, my Wife and I.” than when he is in pursuit of a runaway hat. With what fiendish delight it waits until you have actually stooped to pick it up, and then how aggravatingly it bounds and skims on for a few more paces, only to repeat the same process; until some kindly eddy carries it into a corner from which it cannot escape ! No less than three times did the wind play me this nasty trick, and at last in desperation I drew out my silk handkerchief and tied it securely over the refractory head-gear and.under my chin, painfully conscious of what my appearance must be, and devoutly thankful that by no possibility could Celia see me from the villa windows With such a get-up dignity was incompatible, and I had come to the conclusion that a mixture of dignity and injured innocence was the most fitting attitude for me to adopt towards her. I was now able to look about me with tolerable comfort. I was going up a slight incline in the road. On each side of me were the unvarying, undulating downs, but certainly the road was considerably narrower than that upon which I had set out to walk on leaving the village, and the telegraph poles, which I had then noticed, were now conspicuous by their absence. I was puzzled to account for this at first, but then remembering the chases after my hat, I came to the conclusion that in the excitement of one of them I must have strayed off the main road on to a side one. I was all the better pleased. I was sure to meet someone, or to pass some cottage where I could ask my way home, and, in the meantime, the uncertainty as to my whereabouts gave just that element of interest to my walk that had been wanting before. Altogether, I felt in better spirits. I had walked off my bad temper to a great extent, and began to think that perhaps, after all, I had been a trifle unreasonable and rude to Celia. A feeling of - remorse at having left her all alone in the stupid little villa took possession of me, and I would have turned straight back by the way I had come to seek for reconciliation, if a sudden bend of the road had not brought me unexpectedly in view of the sea. I must have been walking in something of a ring, and I also must have been gradually ascending since I left the village, for now I found myself on the top of one of the cliffs overlooking the sands. The road here took a sudden dip, and apparently led down to the shore by a series of rather steep zig-zags. It would now, it seemed to me, be much shorter to make my way home by the shore. At any rate there was a cottage a little way down the hill, and I could find out there which was my best way to get back to St. Bridgets. I was pleased to see, as I looked round, that on all sides there were the signs of a clear-up on the part of the weather. The wind seemed to have gone round to some more favourable point, for though still blowing hard, it did not now bring with it the driving showers of rain. The clouds out to windward were lifting, and there was EOMRRIC OOO SS (GO)