The Argosy — page 349: what you’re looking at

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

328 Court Netherleigh. themselves, when they were before her in all their glory, and she made one of the bedizened crowd, her nightmare would return to her; the skeleton in the closet would, at those festive times, be exceeding prominent and bare. ‘The reader may be a philosopher, a grave old F.R.S., very learned in searching out cause and effect, and so be able to account for this. I am not. Selina’s mouth watered as she listened to Lady Burnham’s descrip- tion of what she meant to wear herself at the wedding, and what she recommended to Selina: and the carriage stopped at Madame Damereau’s. Mrs. Dalrymple’s orders were quite moderate to-day— only amounting to about ninety pounds. Was she quite silly ? the reader will ask. Well, not more so than many another thoughtless woman. Madame Damereau took the order as politely and carefully as though Mrs. Oscar Dalrymple had been made of bank notes and gold. She knew better manners—and _ better policy, too—than to make any objection before others of her clientele. But that same evening, when Selina was dressing, she was told that a lady who gave the name of Cooper wished to see her. Selina knew that there was a Mrs. Cooper in the establishment of Madame Damereau, a partner, she fancied, or book-keeper, something of that. She had seen her once or twice; a _ ladylike woman who had been reduced. “Let Mrs. Cooper come up here,” she said to the maid. And Mrs. Cooper entered the bedroom. “T come from Madame Damereau’s,” she began, taking the chair that Selina pointed to. ‘‘She hopes ——” ‘For goodness sake speak low! ” interrupted Selina, 1n ill-concealed terror. ‘‘ Mr. Dalrymple 1s only in his dressing-room, and I do not wish him to hear all my private affairs. These London walls are thin. She wants money, I suppose.” vichveo ‘She hopes, madam, that you will make it convenient to let her have some,” said Mrs. Cooper, sinking her voice to a whisper. ‘‘If it were only a few hundred pounds,” she said. ‘‘ That is but trifling, compared with the whole sum, which amounts now to —— ” “Oh, I know what it amounts to; I can guess it, near enough,” nastily interposed Mrs. Dalrymple. ‘‘In the course of a week or two I will see what I can do.” Poor Selina, at her wits’ end for excuses, had said ‘‘in the course of a week or two” so many times now, that Madame Damereau was tired of hearing the phrase. Mrs. Cooper hesitated, not much liking her errand. ‘‘ She bade me say, madam, that she was extremely sorry to cause inconvenience, but that she cannot execute the order you gave to-day unless she previously receives some money.” “ Not execute it!” repeated Selina, with flashing eyes. ‘‘ What do you mean by saying such a thing to me?” ECORNIEOOOKS. Com