The Argosy — page 270: what you’re looking at

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

212 M iss Oldham’s Chotce. gies. The fact was, there was a great dinner at Barrington Crescent —at Dr. Werner's. Four times. And now this was the fifth !—Well, well, she almost laughed now ; and yet she was so angry. She moved over to where there was a great display of gay ribbons. Each of the above incidents was trifling, of course ; but still each one had been very vexatious at the moment, and she had got to think that the whole of Boroughbourne bowed down in worship before Dr. Werner. She believed she had said something of this kind to the landlord of the hotel, the morning after the supper incident, and he had answered rather confusedly that Boroughbourne was proud Dr. Werner should have honoured it as his fixed place of residence ; and that Dr. Werner was a very popular gentleman. “Who is Dr. Werner ?” She put the question to him frigidly, just to see what the man would say ; for, of course, all the world knew the great metaphysician Werner. He hummed, and fidgeted, and finally replied that he had never heard Dr. Werner mentioned as being anything du¢ Dr. Werner. A pang of amusement swept over her as she remembered that. Well, but her Indian silk? No, no; it was too much! She turned rapidly away from the ribbons, and went towards the door. She was quite near it—upon the very threshold—and had called to mind that someone had surely mentioned to her Dr. Werner’s great fondness for his one child—a daughter. That he was a widower she had heard certainly. She looked up and down for her open fly and just at the moment a voice spoke close to her ear. ‘My Indian silk ! ” | She wheeled round to find a gentleman on the step beside her staring fixedly down at the silk upon her arm. He was very tall and broad-shouldered, with a short, flaxen-coloured King Charles beard. Keen, dark blue eyes, peering out from under well-defined eyebrows of the same colour as his beard. Almost at the same instant as his ex- clamation he raised a pair of double eye-glasses quickly, and after cast- ing one still more narrow look at the silk, bowed to Miss Oldham. “Pardon me, madam,” he said, with a slight foreign accent: “I fancied that, by some mistake possibly, you might have been carrying away—my Indian silk. A hundred pardons, madam. Some other pieces of silk, no doubt. Some mistake of the shop people—there were no other pieces probably. Pray pardon me.” As he finished speaking, he put up his eye-glass and peered into the silk again. Miss Oldham had adjusted it with a little movement of her dainty brown kid glove. The burning spot was on each cheek once again, but she raised her eyes with even a more haughtily direct look than usual. | “ Am I speaking to Dr. Werner?” she enquired, composedly.— ‘The man met the eyes with his own, and appeared positively startled by them. “Tam Dr. Werner—yes,” he answered, looking straight at her. CONNEC MOOOKS.CO @ im