The Argosy — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

fee eA RG Ose yy, MARCH, 1580. fee ote RIES OF TIERON DYKE. } CHAPTER G WEE: COMING TO DINNER, ISS WINTER sat in her low chair by the window of her sitting-room in the north wing ; for though she had abandoned her bed-room in that quarter, she still, on occasion, sat in that. A closed book lay on her lap, her chin was resting on the palm of one hand, and her eyes, to all appearance, were taking in for the thousandth time the features of the well-known scene before her. But in reality she saw nothing of it: her thoughts were elsewhere. This was ‘Tuesday, the day fixed for Edward Conroy to dine at the Hall. How came it that his image—the image of a man whom she had seen but twice in her life—dwelt so persistently in her thoughts? She was. vexed and annoyed with herself to find how often her mind went. wandering off in a direction where—or so she thought—it had no- right to go. She tried her hardest to keep it under control, to fill it with the occupations that had hitherto sufficed for its quiet content- ment, but at the first unguarded moment it was away again, to bask in sunshine, as it were, till caught in the very act, and haled igno- miniously back. | “Why must I be for ever thinking about this man?” she asked herself petulantly, as she sat this morning by the window, and a warm flush thrilled her even while the question was on her lps. She was ashamed to remember that even at church on Sunday morning she could not get the face of Edward Conroy out of her thoughts. ‘The good Vicar’s sermon had been more prosy and com- monplace than usual, and do what she might, Ella could not fix her attention on it. She caught herself half a dozen times calling to mind what Conroy had said on Thursday, and wondering what he VOL; XL. econtichooks (CO)