The Argosy — page 167: what you’re looking at

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

Parkwater. 157 further. And then Tody proposes to come over here, and lie perdu with us, while he considers how he is to get on his legs again.” ‘TI have always thought it a pity he sold out.” “He could not keep in. He would have been sent to Coventry. You know it was not once, or twice, or three times, that Tody was in for it, but always. And some things got to the Colonel’s ears—if they did not get to the Commander-in-Chief’s,—and altogether there was no other resource. Besides, he was compelled to turn the proceeds into money, and make stop-gaps of it.” “Still, if he could have kept his commission ” “‘ But he could not,” interrupted Lord Tennygal. ‘‘ My dear Bessie, Tody ts your brother, and I am sorry to speak harshly of him, but he 1s just a vagabond, and that’s the best that can be said.” A few days passed on. Miss May set to her duties with a will. How she had contrived to enter this family was best known to herself ; but, being in it, she resolved to try and please. The departure of Fredenck Lyvett lay on her still as a bitter blow, a terrible check to the am- bitious views she had begun to cherish. However, if she could but continue in these high families, she hoped to meet with some one as eligible as he, who would fall in love with her and raise her by mar- nage to his own rank. The little girls, Laura and Rose, took to her very kindly ; Lady Tennygal was charmed with her playing and singing, and all parties were satisfied. Miss May, perhaps, would have been better satisfied had Parkwater been more lively. It might have been a desert, for all the company she saw; and she could not understand a lord and a lady living so quietly in regard to household arrangements. On the first Sunday, as they were walking home across the park after morning service, Lord Tennygal suddenly addressed his wife : ‘Ts that governess of yours an Englishwoman, Bessie ?” “Certainly. Why?” ‘“‘ Because she uses a French prayer-book i in church.” “No!” uttered Lady Tennygal, in an accent of disbelief. ‘¢She used one this morning. I saw itm herhand. And ” “Mamma !” cried little Rose, running up, her whole air, eyes, lips, one picture of admiring awe — ‘mamma, only think! Miss May’s book is not a common book like ours: it is all in French; every bit. How I wish I was clever enough to have a French prayer- book !” ‘‘That’s corroborative testimony,” laughed Lord Tennygal. “I don’t know how you will get over the dilemma,” he added to his wife, in an under and more serious tone. “It isa pity the children observed it. You cannot well speak against their governess to them: but you can- not allow their minds to retain the favourable impression that French prayer-books seems to have made.” ECOMRRIC OOO Ss (GO)