The Argosy — page 312: what you’re looking at

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

238 PARKWATER. BY THE AUTHOR OF “East LYNNE.” au =@O@e—=== CHAPTER VIII. HARD TO GET ALONG. N the first-floor apartments of a house at Brompton, one winter evening, there stood.a lady at the fire, holding to it first one foot, then the other. Her shoes were damp and dirty; she had only just come in from the wet streets ; and her bonnet and cloak were not yet taken off. : It wasSophia May. But oh, how she was altered! Her once bloom- ing, blushing face was pale and thin ; it had, besides, a sharp, weary look upon .it; and the eyes were sad, as though she had passed through sorrow. No one could have believed, seeing her now, that less than two years had elapsed since she quitted Parkwater. She had passed through some experiences since then, and they had rot tended to give her cheery views of life. Life, indeed, had been a somewhat hard battle with her ever since. For one thing, she had learned what the faith of man was worth ; especially the faith of the man Theodore Devereux. He and his vows had proved alike false. “How quickly shoes wear out!” she exclaimed, looking down at those she was holding to the fire: ‘‘these let in the wet already. IE must afford myself another pair somehow. Somehow! It’s all very well to say ‘somehow,’ for I don’t know how. If the man won’t let me have them on trust, I must wait till the next quarter's accounts come in. And people pay so slowly !” A young servant-girl in a pinafore came upstairs with the candles and tea-tray. “If you please, ma’am,” she said, as she lighted the candles, “‘here’sa gentleman at the door; and he says if you are Miss May he should hke to see you. He is waiting in the passage.” ‘¢ A gentleman —to see me!” she exclaimed, in surprise. ‘‘ Oh, I daresay it is somebody to offer me a fresh pupil, or to ask my terms.” She threw off her bonnet and cloak in a scuffle, settled her collar, pinned on a bow of blue ribbons which lay on the table, and turned to the glass over the mantle-piece to smooth the braids of her hair. ‘You can show him up now, Mary.” The visitor entered. A young, well-dressed gentleman, somewhat given to display in the matter of ornaments—but it was the fashion to be so then. He was of light complexion, with a good-natured but not CORnniclooolkks (CO)