The Argosy — page 334: what you’re looking at

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

A Freak of Fortune. aq8 wills and marriage contracts for Maitre Guérizot, and where should we be, mother and I, without the hundred francs a month which M. Patterson gives me for correcting his daughter’s American French? By-the-by,” continued the volatile girl, suddenly changing her tone, and extracting from her pocket a bundle of little papers, ‘she gave me something to-day—only think—a dozen tickets for the Exhibition lottery! Keep them for me, Maurice, and mind you look at the numbers when the drawing takes place, and tell me what I have won.” “Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched,” said Maurice, smiling in spite of himself, and putting the tickets carefully into his portemonnaie. ‘‘ Luck isn’t at everyone’s beck and call, you know !” “Speak for yourself, monsieur,” retorted the young lady. ‘“‘ Every- one has the chance of a prize until he gets a blank. Am I not right, mother ?” “So right,” asserted Madame Duvivier, fondly stroking her child’s silky hair, “that the subject may be considered as exhausted. And, as it is nearly half-past eleven, and a certain person’s concierge would be mortally offended if he were kept up until midnight, I recommend Maurice to make the best of his way to the Rue Visconti.” Which Maurice, after some demur and a good deal of unnecessary delay, finally did. It will have been seen from the foregoing conversation that the notary’s clerk and Miss Patterson’s instructress were on tolerably intimate terms, and that their mutual attachment was sanctioned by the approvai of Madame Duvivier; but how the affection they evidently entertained for each other had originated has not yet been recorded. Nothing could be simpler or less romantic than the story of their lives. Both natives of the same provincial town, whither Maurice’s father, Captain Lapeyrie, had retired with his newly married wife on quitting the service, and had there contracted a close friendship with M. Duvivier, a physician of some local eminence, they had been brought up, so to speak, together, the intercourse between their parents being so constant that the two ménages might almost be considered as one family. A favourite project with the Captain, which he was not destined to see realized, was the future union of his son with the daughter of his friend. This desire being earnestly shared by his wife, and cordially reciprocated by Monsieur and Madame Duvivier, the young people, as time went on, and Maurice was already twenty and Louise a year younger, were allowed full liberty to fall in love with each other, which—under the circumstances a not altogether improbable consequence—they naturally did. This early stage of their courtship was shortly after interrupted by cConnicloooks (C()