The Argosy — page 314: what you’re looking at

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

between Two Stools. 207 “ Confound the Major!” With all my heart, but keep an eye on him. The cad wasn’t born yesterday, and is as hard up as either of us. He has been un- lucky at whist lately, and dropped a good bit of money on the Leger ; so depend upon it, if he has a chance of recouping himself by marry- ing the widow, he won’t let it slip.” ‘‘ He might have her to-morrow, and welcome,” said the Honour- able Adolphus, “if I could only be sure of landing the sixty-six fifties; not an impossible contingency by any means, if the horse is half the flyer they seem to think in the stable. He’s going up in the market like a rocket, and if I chose to hedge ——” ‘Why don’t youe ” *‘ Simply because a few hundreds won’t put me straight, and a few thousands will; so I’ve no choice in the matter, and must stand the shot. However, it’s as well to have two strings to one’s bow, so I'll take your advice about the Mangoe, if only for the pleasure of giving our friend the Major the go-by. By the way, we shall meet him at dinner there to-day, and you'll have an opportunity of carrying on with that stunning girl, Alice Carruthers. Pity, for your sake, that she and the old lady can’t change places: a waiting game is hard lines in the long run.” Especially when there is nothing to wait for,” assented Lascelles in a despondent tone. ‘‘A poor devil of a barrister, without a brief or the hope of one, and a portionless orphan with a pretty face, pour tout potage ; the prospect isn’t over lively.” ‘Something may turn up yet,” encouragingly observed his com- panion. ‘That fellow Micawber found it all right in the end, you know.” ‘* And all wrong in the beginning,” retorted Frank. ‘I fancy the resemblance between us is likely to stop there.” Wimpole Street is not precisely a locality calculated to impress the passing stranger with any exaggerated idea of the cheerfulness of its population. It is eminently respectable and dingily uniform; and, due allowance made for the difference of architecture, instinctively suggests a vague reminiscence of the street of tombs at Pompeil. Like other parallel thoroughfares in its immediate vicinity, it pre- sents on either side an unbroken vista of orthodox family dwellings, the sole indication relative to the social status of their occupants being an occasional highly polished brass plate attached to the door, and decorated with the name of some medical or surgical practitioner ; or, at still rarer intervals, a manuscript advertisement of ‘“‘ Apartments to Let.” » The house inhabited by Mrs. Mangoe, viewed externally, differed in no essential respect from those of her neighbours, and had evidently been constructed after the same pattern; but the interior, furnished with every attention to comfort and luxurious elegance, was peculiarly (CO) im Comiclooks