The Argosy — page 335: what you’re looking at

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

316 A Freak of Fortune. the departure of the young Lapeyrie for Paris, where he purposed studying for the bar. He had, however, scarcely commenced the necessary preliminaries, when he was hastily summoned home by the tidings that his father and mother had both been suddenly attacked by a fever then prevalent in the locality, and arrived only in time to receive their last blessing, and to feel that he was henceforth alone in the world. Misfortunes, it 1s said, never come singly. A few months later M. Duvivier, while visiting a country: patient, was thrown from his horse, fractured his skull, and never spoke afterwards. On examining the state of his affairs, it was discovered that they were greatly embarrassed. With the exception of what might be realized by the sale of the furniture and a small sum of ready money, the widow and her daughter were left entirely without resource. Many were the consultations as to their future plans between the former and Maurice. Huis position was even more disastrous, his father’s pension having died with him, and the value of the few personal effects remaining in the lodgings occupied by him being, after payment of the funeral and other incidental expenses, abso- lutely nil. , It was at length resolved that Paris alone offering a possible prospect of lucrative employment for Maurice, whose intention of continuing his studies must necessarily, from sheer want of funds, be abandoned, he should at once repair thither, and be followed by Madame Duvivier and Louise, as soon as he could hold out any hope to the latter of utilising, either by tuition or otherwise, the excellent education she had received. The results of this expedition were, first, the young man’s admission, through the influence of a barrister whose acquaintance he had made during his former stay in the capital, as supplementary clerk in the notary’s office. And secondly, the installation of the two ladies in the Rue Soufflot, and the engagement of Mademoiselle Louise—who by her mother’s advice had inserted an advertisement in Galignanz’s Messenger—as reader and general initiator into the beauties of the French language to the wealthy American heiress, Miss Patterson. Three months had elapsed since the evening of our hero and heroine’s introduction to the reader, and no material change had taken place in the position of either. Maurice, indeed, had succeeded by dint of the strictest economy in wiping off the arrear of rent due to his landlord, but in every other respect things had remained exactly in statu quo. Any likelihood of his marriage with Louise seemed farther off than ever. For, although he still continued to accompany her of an evening on her return from the Rue de Rivoli—where Mr. Patterson had engaged a suite of apartments in one of the principal hotels—and was as kindly welcomed by Madame Duvivier as heretofore: yet in his present precarious situation, dependent as he was on his ill- remunerated labour for the scantiest means of subsistence, he felt EORNIELIOOKS EO) im