The Argosy — page 257: what you’re looking at

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

A Secret of the Sea. 243 longing that was almost painful in its intensity to get clean away out of sight of it—out of hearing of it—if only for a few hours. Taking advantage of a visit of his wife to her milliner, he stole out of the house—and he really felt as if he were doing something that he ought not to do—and a swift hansom soon set him down at “Jack Straw’s Castle.” A long stretch through the valley on the other side of the Hampstead hills, amid the sights and sounds of country life, sent him back to Harley Street a happier man for the time being. But the watch which her ladyship kept over him did not allow of a too frequent indulgence in such forbidden luxuries. “I hope, my dear, that you will not be long before you decide as to the particular question that you intend to make your own this session,” she said to her husband, one morning about a fortnight after the opening of Parliament. “ Really,.my dear,” said Sir Thomas, insinuatingly, “ everything is so strange to me just at present—the forms of the House, and all that, you know—that I have hardly had time to give my mind to anything else.” ‘* Just so, my love. Of course, every allowance must be made for that. But still I think you ought to be preparing—working up a subject, mastering the details, and so on. What do you say to the Sugar Duties, now? That is a topic about which the public are likely to be greatly interested before long. Or Indian Finance? That is a fruitful subject.” “ But, then, I know absolutely sothing about either of them.” ‘So much the better. You will bring to the study and discussion of these great questions a mind fresh and unprejudiced—a mind unfettered by the bonds of tradition or the obligations of party.” ‘ But, in addition to not knowing anything about the Sugar Duties or Indian Finance, I don’t care about them—no, not a brass farthing.” ‘All the more will you be able to discuss them with impartiality. Your capacious mind will enable you to look at a question from several different points of view, and to give to each its proper value.” ‘¢But, even supposing I had the inclination—which I certainly have not,” persisted poor Sir Thomas, “I have not the remotest idea how to set about working up any such subjects as those mentioned by your ladyship.”’ ‘‘ My dear, you surprise me! What is Mr. Pomeroy for? It can- not, of course, be expected that you should waste your time in picking out a lot of dreary statistics, or in wading through a heap of dry, mechanical details. All that forms part of the cuties of your secretary. It is his place to bring to a common focus all the various facts and figures that may have any bearing on the subjectin hand, Sucha summary of facts and figures could be readily mastered by you in the course of a morning’s study. You would then have to consider the ecomniclooolkks