The Argosy — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

44 Featherston’s Story. them, as pleased as they were, saying she should like to dance, too, it she could only go first to the mill to be ground young again. Jane ‘and Edith Peckham were spending the day with us. It was just such a day as this, warm and bright ; light, fleecy clouds flitting across the blue sky. I wish Lavinia were out to enjoy it! but she is hardly strong enough for long walks yet, and only potters about, when she does get out, in the Rue des Arbres or the Grande Place, or perhaps over to see Mary Cardiac. ‘I don’t know what to do. I lay awake all last night, and sat moping yesterday, thinking what I cou/d do. Edwin wants me to marry him; I told Lavinia, and she absolutely forbids it, saying I should rush upon misery. He says I should be happy as the day’s long. I feel like a distracted lunatic, not knowing which of them is right, or which opinion I ought to yield to. I have obeyed Lavinia all my life; we have never had a difference before; her wishes have been mine, and mine have been hers. But I can’t see why she need have taken up this prejudice against him, for I’m sure he’s more like an angel than a man; and, as he whispers to me, Nancy Fennel would be a prettier name than Nancy Preen. I said to him to-day, ‘My name is Ann, not really Nancy.’ ‘My dear,’ he answered, ‘I shall always call you Nancy; I love the simple name.’ **T no longer talk about him to Lavinia, or let her suspect that we still meet on the pier. It would make her angry, and I can’t bear that. Idare not hint to her what Edwin said to-day—that he should take matters into his own hand. He means to go over to Dover, 774 Calais ; stay at Dover a fortnight, as the marriage law requires, and then come back to fetch me; and after the marriage has taken place we shall return here to live. “Oh, dear, what am I to do? It will be a dreadful thing to deceive Lavinia ; and it will be equally dreadful to lose Azim. He declares that if I do not agree to this he shall set sail for India (where he used to be with his regiment), and never, never see me again. Good gracious! ever to see me again ! “The worst is, he wants to go off to Dover at once, giving one no time for consideration! Must I say Yes,or No? The uncertainty shakes me to pieces. He laughed to-day when I said something of this, assuring me Lavinia’s anger would pass away like a summer cloud when I was his wife; that sisters had no authority over one another, and that Lavinia’s opposition arose from selfishness only, because she did not want to lose me. ‘ Xrsk st, Nancy,’ said he ; ‘she'll receive you with open arms when I bring you back from Dover.’ If I could only think so! Now and then I feel inclined to confide my dilemma to Mary Cardiac, and ask her opinion, only that { fear she might tell Lavinia.” Mr. Edwin Fennel quitted Sainteville. When he was missed COMIC OOOKS.CO