The Argosy — page 262: what you’re looking at

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

eee re a CS OY... APRIL 1, 1874. IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT. CHAPTER XII. TOM BRISTOW’S RETURN. - HAT can be sweeter or more charming than an English May- day? I declare I’ve seen nothing in the East at all com- parable to it.” The speaker was Tom Bristow; the person addressed was a casual compagnon de voyage, whose acquaintance he had made during the Channel passage ; and the scene was a first-class compartment in the mail train from Dover to London. 7 ‘You wouldn’t be so ready to praise an English May-day if you had - been here last week, as I was,” was the reply. ‘‘ No sunshine—not a gleam; but, in place of it, a confounded east wind that was almost keen enough to shave you. Every second fellow you met spoke to you through his nose ; and when you did happen to get near a fire, you were frozen through on one side before you were half warmed through on the other.” “Well, it’s pleasant enough now, in all conscience,” said Tom, witha smile of easy cortent. | Tom Bristow, who was very thorough in most of his undertakings, had remained abroad—extending his travels into Palestine and Egypt -—till his health was completely re-established. But, as he said to him- self, he had now had enough of sands and sunsets ; of dirty Algerines and still dirtier Arabs; of camel-riding and mule-riding; of beggars and bucksheesh ; and he was now coming back, with renewed zest, to the prosaic duties of everyday existence, as exemplified, in his case, in the rise and fall of public securities and the refined gambling of the London Stock Exchange. VOL. XVII. R COnnIClOoOKS (C(O)