The Argosy — page 262: what you’re looking at

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

Court Netherleigh. 243 since like a nightmare. Not a word of the sermon yesterday morning could I take in. When mamma asked me what the text was when I got home from church, I was obliged to say I could not remember it. So, this morning, I thought I would write a line to Robert, asking if things are well with him—for anxiety and suspense yet cling to me.” Her voice ceased. Mr. Grubb made no comment. “Has any ill happened to him, Francis ?” she continued, her face raised wistfully. ‘Have you come to tell it me?” Oh, it was a hard task, this, that was imposed upon him. Far harder than the one that had fallen to Oscar Dalrymple at Moat Grange in Berkshire. For the natures of the two men were essentially different : the one stoically calm; the other warm, generous, loving. Francis Grubb took his sister gently by the hand. “Tet us go into the open air, Mary ; to the quiet shrubbery. What I have to tell you, I will tell you there.” ° It was a most terrible thing to have come to pass. Better that the ill-fated Robert Dalrymple, when in the very act of self-destruction, had-arrested himself, and prayed to God for deliverance as Mary Lynn seemed to have implored him to do in her dream. And if any latent doubt lingered in the minds of fond relatives, this was to be extinguished. Some three weeks after the fatal night, he was found in the water, near Millwall: quite unrecognisable in him- self, but identified by his clothes. The jury brought ina more merciful verdict than was passed on his uncle before him—‘“ ‘Temporary Insanity ;” and he was buried in the nearest churchyard. As to his creditors, they were not paid. ‘There was nothing to pay them with. With the exception, however, of his gambling debts, it turned out that Robert did not owe much. Mr. Grubb had got back Farmer Lee’s five hundred pound cheque—and Mr. Grubb, Reuben, and Oscar, to whom it was alone known, kept that matter secret from the farmer and from the world. Oscar Dalrymple had come into the Grange, and would take - possession of it as soon as Mrs. Dalrymple could, at her con- venience, move out. Oscar, cold and calculating though he was, could but come forward to Mrs. Dalrymple’s rescue. It fell to him to keep her and her daughters now. He spoke to her in a kindly, generous tone, letting nothing appear of the inward wincing he possibly may have felt. She had absolutely no resource in the world, save Oscar. They hada distant relative indeed, one Benjamin Dalrymple, living in the West of England; a crusty old man, who was reported to be very rich and had made his money at cotton spinning ; but this old man had created quite a deadly. feud between himself and all the Dalrymple family; and Mrs. Dalrymple would starve rather than apply to him. Better be under an obligation to Oscar than to him: though she did not over well like that. Oscar proposed (perhaps he felt he could do no less) that she and her daughters should still CORnNICOOOKS.EO =