The Argosy — page 393: what you’re looking at

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

The Village Blacksmith. 375 home wondering how Mr. Ryot Tempest would break the news of his son’s mésalliance to her. She would not have long to wonder, for she was expecting him directly after luncheon. Mr. Ryot Tempest was late, for he had been trying in vain to obtain any news of Janet. And he now arrived at the Grange with a secret hope that courage would be given him to suggest to his bride-elect that their marriage .be postponed till some satisfactory mews of his daughter-in-law were obtained. He was thoroughly frightened about her, for in Reuben’s state there was no telling what he might not have done to her. The very fact that he was found insensible in the middle of the night by the canal side was a very suspicious one. If poor Mr. Ryot Tempest were about to be hanged instead of married on the morrow he could hardly have felt more wretched than he did when he arrived at the Grange that afternoon. He was painfully nervous, as Mrs. Jamieson saw at a glance. She also shrewdly suspected that it was not only the news of Rex’s marriage which so depressed him. In fact she made a very near guess as to the real state of his feelings, and when he stammered out: “‘ My dear friend, { am in terrible trouble !” she answered in her sweetest tone : ‘*T know all about it; more than you do, perhaps ; so don’t let me see any more knitted brows to-day, please.” She pushed a footstool towards him and seated herself on it, rest- ing her clasped white hands on one of his knees, an attitude she had arranged before he arrived. ‘* These little men are very awkward to manage; atall man [ should have had no difficulty with ; but I tower over Ryot, and he is so desperately shy, which makes things still more difficult,” she thought. Then the footstool suggested itself and solved the pro- blem. She laid a slight stress on the word “to-day,” and bent her face so that the blood rushed into it and did duty for a blush. “TI fear my Poppy can hardly know the disgrace that has come upon me or’she would hardly look so bright,” said the elderly bride- groom, bending his head close to his bride’s. ‘Indeed, I do; Mrs. Canter has told me that Rex—I may call him so, mayn’t I p—has married Deautiful Janet Foreman, the daughter of that great handsome giant of a blacksmith. They wé/ do it, you know, sometimes, these young men; and as he is out in Manitoba, it won’t matter so much as it otherwise would. He must keep there, of course ; and she must be sent out to him at once before the news of their marriage gets abroad.” ‘ But she can’t be found. She has been missing since last even- ing,” said the Rector, the cloud on his brow beginning to melt under the benign rays of Mrs. Jamieson’s presence. ‘She is now at my lodge with her baby, and Mrs. Tanner is look- ing after her.” @ COMM AOC Ss (GO)