The Argosy — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

Court Netherletgh. 87 “Dinner, my lady,” came the interruption, as the door was flung open: and the Earl started up, and said not another word. He thought it well that his lady-wife should digest the news so far, before proceeding further with it. The Countess, on her part, understood that all was told, and that the desired bride was Grace. Mr. Grubb gave his arm to Lady Acorn, and sat down on her right hand. Lady Grace. was next him on the other side. He was an agreeable man, of easy manners. Could they ignore the City house, and had he boasted of ancestry and a high-sounding name, they could not have wished for a companion who was more thoroughly the gentle- man. Unusually agreeable he was this evening, for he now believed that no bar would be thrown in the way of his winning the Lady Adela. He had long admired her above all women; he had long loved her, and he saw no reason why any bar should be thrown: what incompatibility ought to exist between the portionless daughter of a ruined peer and a British merchant of high character and stand- ing, and next to unlimited wealth? The ruined peer, however, had he heard this argument, might have said the merchant reasoned but in accordance with his merchant-origin ; that he could not be expected to understand distinctions which were above him. | Lady Acorn rose from table early. She had been making up her mind to the match, during dinner: like her husband, she discovered, on reflection, its numerous advantages, and she was impatient to disclose the matter to Grace. Mr. Grubb held the door open as they filed out, for which the Countess thanked him by a bow more cordial than she had ever bestowed on him in her life. Whether it had ever occurred to Lady Acorn that this City man was probably the son of Catherine Grant, cannot be told. She had never alluded to it: Catherine had offended them all too greatly ever to be recalled even by name: and, so far as Lord Acorn went, he did not know such a person as Catherine had ever existed. The girls gathered their chairs round the fire in the autumn evening, and began grumbling. ‘‘ Engagements”—he did not say of what nature—had been Lord Acorn’s plea for remaining in town when every- body else had left it. Adela was especially bitter. ‘Papa never does things like other people. When we ought to be away, we are boxed up in town; and when everybody else is in town, we are kept in the country. I’m sick of it.” “Tt is a pity, girls, you have not got husbands to cater for you, as you are sick of your father’s rule,” tartly spoke their mother. ‘ You don’t go off; any of you.” ‘Tt is Grace’s turn to go first,” cried Lady Harriet. “Ves, 1¢ is—and one wedding in a family often leads to another,” observed the wily Countess. ‘‘I should like to see Grace well settled. Wuth a fine place of her own where we could go and visit her, and a nice town mansion; and a splendid income to support *. Tt 9 Wt Gis, connicloooks (CO)