The Argosy — page 259: what you’re looking at

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

A Secret of the Sea. 245 ‘You mustn’t make the speech too long, you know, or else I shall be sure to forget some of it—and you mustn’t even hint to her lady- ship that it’s not my own composition.” *¢ You may rely implicitly upon my discretion, sir.” ‘‘ And then I want you to write out a second speech, which must be simply an amplification of the first, with a few fine words and big phrases dropped in here and there, like plums in a dumpling. This second speech ts for my constituents, and you must arrange with the editor for its appearance in the Pembridge Gazette on the Saturday following my delivery of speech number one in the House.” “IT comprehend perfectly, sir,” said Jack. “ You are a good fellow, Pomeroy—a very good fellow,” added Sir Thomas. “I like you much. Her ladyship hkes you much. She quite values you. But not a word to her about our little arrangement —and don’t forget the plums in the dumpling.” Sir Thomas had hardly been gone five minutes, when there came a discreet tap at the door, and in walked Olive Deane. “Good morning, Mr. Pomeroy,” she said. ‘I hear that the box has arrived from Mudie’s. Her ladyship gave me the privilege of ordering two or three books on my own account, and I am anxious to see whether they have come.” “‘ Here it is,” said Jack ; “ unopened as yet; so that you will have the pleasure of being the first to explore its contents.” ‘You seem to understand our sex—a little,” said Olive, as she turned over the books. ‘It is singular, but true, but I should not derive half so much pleasure from turning over the contents of this box had anyone, especially another woman, done it before me. But we women are full of contrarieties.”’ ‘Tt is precisely those contrarieties which make your sex so charming. You are so full of surprises. No woman, it seems to me, can ever be altogether commonplace.” ‘‘Oh, I grant you that we are full of surprises,” said Olive. “A man, for instance, has only one or two ways of showing his temper, whereas we have fifty ways, all different from each other: which prevents monotony. If we cannot startle you with a wise or witty remark, we prefer to try an inane one, rather than not startle you at all. We are melodramatic to the backbone, and are always studying a climax or a surprise, if it be only in the petty details of every-day life.” ‘‘T feel that I ought to say something pretty here, in deprecation of the severity of your judgment,” said Jack, with a smile, “ but nothing worthy of the occasion occurs to me at present. 1 fear I am rather stupid this moming.”’ “ Stupidity is certainly the great failing of your sex,” said Olive, with candour. ‘‘ How seldom one meets with a man who has anything to say worth listening to; or if he has, how rarely he knows how to say | coniicbooks _ (CO) inn