The Argosy — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

42 Featherston’s Siory. The next day she was no better. Poor Nancy had to go out alone, or to stay indoors. She did not like doing the latter at all; it was too dull; her own inclination would have led her abroad all day and every day. ‘‘T saw Captain Fennel on the pier again,” said she to her sister that afternoon, when she was making the tea at Lavinia’s bedside, Flore having carried up the tray. ‘“¥ hope you did not talk to him, Ann,” spoke the invalid, as well as she could articulate. “JT talked a little,” said Nancy, turning hot, conscious that she had gossipped with him for three quarters of an hour. ‘' He stopped to speak to me; I could not walk on rudely.” ** Anyway, don’t talk to him again, my dear. Ido not like that man.” ‘¢ What is there to dislike in him, Lavinia ? ” ‘That I can’t say. His countenance is not a good one; it is shifty, deceitful. He is a man you could never trust.” ‘‘7’m sure I’ve heard you say the same of other people.” ‘* Because I can read faces,” returned Lavinia. ‘*Oh—well—I consider Captain Fennel’s is a handsome face,” debated Nancy. ‘© Why do you call him Captain ?” “Fe calls himself so,” answered Nancy. ‘I suppose it was his rank in the army when he retired. They retain it afterwards by courtesy, don’t they, Lavinia ?” ‘I am not sure. It depends upon whether they retire in rotation or sell out, I fancy. Mrs. Smith said the Major called him Mr. Fennel, and he ought to know. There, I can’t talk any more, Nancy, and the man is nothing to us that we need discuss him.” La grippe had taken rather sharp hold of Lavinia Preen, and she was upstairs for ten days. On the first afternoon she went down to the salon, Captain Fennel called, very much to her surprise; and, also to her surprise, he and Nancy appeared to be pretty intimate. In point of fact, they had met every day, generally upon the pier. Nancy had said nothing about it at home. She was neither sly nor deceitful in disposition ; rather notably simple and unsophisticated ; but, after Lavinia’s reproof the first time she told about meeting him, she would not tell again. Miss Preen behaved coolly to him; which he would not appear to see. She sat over the fire, wrapped in a shawl, for it was a cold afternoon. He stayed only a little time, and put his card down on the slab near the stairs when he left. Lavinia had it brought to her. “* Mr. Edwin Fennel.” “Then he is not Captain Fennel,” she observed. ‘“ But, Nancy, what in the world could have induced the man to call here? And how is it you seem to be familiar with him ?” “I have met him out-of-doors sometimes while you were ill,” COMIC OOOKS.CO