The Argosy — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

‘ =’ * 46 Stephanie. 4 His languid eyes upraising themselves, because her face was so near, caught such a view of it as they had never had before; and meeting his gaze, Steenie blushed innocently. On his part, he was merely recog- nizing what a very sweet and youthful face it was, and how pure and fresh it looked, under the shadow of the grey straw hat. | It was quite natural that this episode should make them better friends ~ than they had been before. They saw each other often, and when they met at the rectory, Kenneth fell into the habit of walking with her to her home. He liked to be with her; girl as she was, she satisfied him, somehow. And Steenie, herself, often found the walks pleasant asa memory. But Kenneth did not satisfy her. From the first he had puzzled and even pained her by his singularities: and as she began to know and like him better, she found herself often hurt in an undefined way. He made speeches that startled her; he was occasionally saturnine _ and gloomy. She grew thoughtful and silent. Old Tibby noticed it ; and noticed, too, the habit she contracted of sitting on her stool before the fire, holding puss on her lap, and looking grave and absent. It was nearly twelve months after the new curate’s coming to Gowan- ham, that Steenie, passing out of the Little Shop one afternoon, encountered him striding rapidly down the street, hurried and breath- less. “ Don’t come near me!” he said. ‘‘ You have not heard? No: I sée you have not. The fever has broken out in its most violent form in several houses, almost simultaneously. I have just come from a place where two children are dying, and the rest are sickening with it. Iam glad I have met you in time to give you warning. You must not go near Lower Gowanham on any account, Miss Bright.” Steenie turned pale. In her childhood she remembered just-such an epidemic sweeping over the place; and, young as she had been, she had never forgotten the horror of the time. ‘But if Iam wanted?” she said. ‘The poor people in Lower Gowanham are all my friends, you knews “Tt would be sheer madness to go,” he said, and then stopped short and looked at her as if a new thought had struck him. “I believe you would go,” he added, a trifle sharply, “if the greatest scoundrel in the place called for you.” ) “If I could do him any good I Would go,” she said. ‘Tell me what it will be best for me to do, now?” | “You must do nothing,” was his reply ; “except try to escape the contagion. That is the only thing your friends ought to allow you to do, apart from preparing assistance in the shape of clothes and nourishing food. Are you on your way to the rectory?” : “Yes: ‘‘Then you may put together whatever you think will be useful, and ~ when I have changed my clothes I will come to the house.” Gomichooks.com