The Argosy — page 327: what you’re looking at

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

310 A Rare Case. house he now occupied. Having been delayed so long, he changed his mind about proceeding to the town and went towards home at once. ‘What will be the end of it? I can see no further ahead in my mind than I can see through this fog to-day,” he muttered to himself, as the wheels jolted along the uneven road, and the mist crept round him. ‘It has been a queer business, and just my luck that it should happen to Mattie of all people in the world.” Mattie’s story was simple enough. Anyone would have told you it has been repeated often and often in the world’s history: a common tale, and not surprising in the least. If Drew was surprised at the wrong in it, that was only because wrong was apt to surprise him. He found it easier to believe in right, and to credit men with good intentions. The orphan child of a former servant in a wealthy family, Mattie had shared the lessons and the play of the young daughter of the house, until a time came when it was convenient to turn the humble companion adrift to work for herself. It may have been a piece of the ill-luck his neighbours ascribed to Drew, that it should have been to his farm the girl came as help to his sister, or it may have been a piece of his constitutional good-nature that made him agree to take under his roof this pretty lass, untrained for service and educated far above her station. He heard of her quite accidentally through the steward of the people who had hitherto befriended her. As for them, they were relieved to hear of a good home for her, and one far away from the park-like, heathy land, with its pines and chestnuts, in which pleasant place Mattie’s lines had hitherto fallen. Mattie had been given aneducation that might have satisfied a School Board inspector of to-day, and had moreover caught up little refinements of speech and manner that made her quite a superior young woman. She might have gone out as a nursery governess, but expressed herself more satisfied with a country life 1n a farm-house where there was a young child to look after, and light work required of her. The awakening was rude when her patrons said carelessly that the time was come for her to do something for herself, and that a suitable situation should be found for her. Mattie had a spirit of her own; she did not wait to see what would be done for her, but sought the steward, always a good friend of hers, and through him found a situation for herself: glad that it took her into quite another part of Sussex, and far from all old associations. Drew’s widowed sister, Mrs. Bankes, who lived with him, and whose child it was Mattie had come to nurse, amongst other duties too numerous to mention, for there was but one servant kept—Drew’s sister exclaimed in despair when the farmer brought home the young, lady-like, delicate-looking girl : ‘“We want a strong, hard-working lass! This one does not know her right hand from her left. She is as good as a lady—or as bad, CONMNICLOOOKSsEOnal | | |