Argosy, Vol. 1 (December 9, 1882) — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

124 THE ARGOSY. “Come back! come back! ”’ were the words on his lips. “I understand! I see!” But he dared not speak them before the majesty of her dead face. As he passed out of the room, he almost touched the figure of Daunt Ram- sey, huddled in a chair. Daunt looked up at him with a sudden passionate indignation in his face, and Chris quailed. He wanted to say something, but there were no words, and so he only went out hurriedly and tried, by thinking of other things, to forget that hud- dled figure with its haggard face, and fierce, bloodshot eyes. It haunted him all that day and up to a late hour in the night. He was - not a man who in general allowed his imagination to run away with him, but in his present softened state, indifference was not there; things pierced and stung him which until now had fallen blunted against that armor. He sat in a chair by his library fire, in the studied quiet of a bachelor estab- lishment, and thought it all out again and again—the attraction, the passion, the steady waning friendship, the death at the end. He had always shut all other considerations out of his mind when he thought of her, but now with the picture of her beauty and her brown eyes came one of a huddled, wretched figure, came one, too, of a slender girl, with a strained look around her mouth. Those two! he had not thought much about them. The clock ticked their history— “ Daunt—drunk—Alice—mad,”’ until it seemed as if he must shriek back some answer to silence its voice. The sound of his front door closing after a late visitor roused him some- what. His mind had been on Daunt Ramsey so continuously that he was hardly surprised to see him appear on the threshold. The manner of his appearance, however, gave him a certain sense of as- tonishment. Daunt, in evening dress, neat, with his tall hat in his hand, was a very different figure from the miserable looking young man of the morning. His manner was quiet, steady, decided, without agitation of any kind. “Tam very glad to see you,” Chris made haste to say, rising to greet his visitor. ‘“T have come to settle our account,” said Daunt composedly, taking off his gloves and advancing to the fire. . “ Our account? ” “ The unpaid account between you and me. I am not keeping you—you have no engagement?” His voice was courteous and formal. Chris thought he understood, and rose. “Yes, but you'll go home first, old boy,” he said, taking Daunt by the sleeve ; “ we'll see about this tomorrow—you’re not fit.” The eyes of the young man had a steadiness of gaze which made him drop the sleeve and return to his chair. “Tam perfectly sober at this moment,” said Daunt quietly; “I have not taken a drink for two days on this account. When you make sure that I am perfectly sober, I will proceed.” The steadiness of his hand and the decision of his movements testified to the truth of his words. Chris saw it, and broke the silence rashly by a plea, an entreaty. for he dreaded what was to come. GOH GoOOO ‘SS COLNT