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

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

24 The Mystery of Allan Crale. dreamily. ‘‘Old people never feel quite sure about their juniors til that happens. I should like to see you safely settled before I go, George.” ‘Am I not safely settled ?” George asked, rather wistfully. ‘‘ Do you think, uncle, I shall ever dream of leaving this dear old place, or of changing it?” ‘ No, no,” said the General, “not that. But I wish, George, that you had a wife.” “ And yet you might not approve of her, if she existed,” George remarked. ‘I should not be hard to please,” said the General. “I should not want fortune nor long descent, so long as she was a true lady, gently bred. And surely you could choose no other, George ?” ‘Men do make strange choices,” said George, striving to speak lightly. He averted his face, gazing down the avenue, for they were seated on the terrace. ‘So many things occur to over-rule choice sometimes.” ‘‘ That’s nonsense,” said the General. “If young men are rash and foolish, they must look to pay the penalty. It would be hard to expect a good family to welcome a vulgar bride fresh from her dairy, or a girl out of a milliner’s shop. Where one unequal marriage turns out well, twenty turn out badly, nothing but misery on both sides. I'll tell you of one that turned out well, George; though there was trouble over that. My old friend, dead now, Randolph of Westerham, rashly married a gamekeeper’s daughter ; quite a romance it was, and she was a pretty creature, but her grammar and her style of good looks were not those of Westerham Grange, and the marriage was kept secret till there came a baby boy. Young Randolph cunningly contnved that in a year or two his father and mother should see the boy playing in one of the Westerham lanes, and he said to them (he was always clever), ‘Would you not like such a grandson ?’ and when they both cried out, ‘Yes, indeed we should,’ he said, ‘Then, there he is,’ and told the truth, and was forgiven on the spot.” Mrs. Vivian had come up behind them. ‘You told your story so prettily, General,” she said, ‘“‘that I fear George might feel tempted to go and do likewise, only there is no romance left in young. people in these degenerate days. Do you know of any young lady who married a footman, and was forgiven? That would make a pretty companion. picture !|” The General did not answer, feeling that the question was only _ intended as a reproof. George asked presently : “‘What became of that young Mrs. Randolph ?” ‘Oh, they received her kindly at the Grange of course, under the circumstances. Though she did not live long, poor thing, and I dare- Say it was as well. But the family always spoke of her with respect. Her son 1s the present squire.” But, although the General would not spare his nephew to be away comniclooo ks (C(O)