The Argosy — page 92: what you’re looking at

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

Gwen’s Lover. 70 Mr. Owen turned and turned, till he got what he wanted, and then he settled himself in his chair and looked in the friendliest manner at Gwen’s sweetheart. “Here it is,” he said. ‘‘ We will begin with the second chapter of the book of Maccabees.” ‘Mr. Owen, I am sure it is getting late, sir,” the young man ven- tured to say again. But Mr. Owen only answered, ‘‘’The second chapter of first Maccabees,” and began to read. The light was not good, and the minister read slowly. When he came to a full stop, he leaned back in his chair, took off his spectacles, and expounded what he had read. Then he went on again as far as the next full stop, and then he expounded again. The young man began to wonder how long it would take to get through the chapter, and he thought half an hour would surely do it. But, you see, he never came to chapel, and he had not the very least idea what Mr. Owen, when he liked, could do in the way of exposi- tion; and time went on, and it was amazing how long they were in getting to the twentieth verse. Before they did that he had begun to wonder whether Gwen would wait for him. ‘“ Perhaps she will go to sleep by the fire,” he thought to himself—‘“‘or will she get tired of being there alone, and go to bed ?” He kept listening for any movement in the house, and when they were nearly half through the chapter he heard a step on the stairs. “’That’s Gwen,” he said to himself again, and it was all he could do to keep from saying it aloud. ‘The step went on very slowly; it even stopped for a moment outside the study; but after that it went on again, and then there was the sound of a door shutting with a little bit of a bang, and he knew he should see no more of Gwen that night. All the while Mr. Owen kept going on reading and explaining, and looking at the young man now and then to see that he was awake. And the clock struck for the second time, and then the candle began to burn low, and Gwen’s sweetheart thought to himself: “It won’t be long now till the candle goes out, and then he must stop.” But presently, when he was giving the explanation of something that was harder than usual, Mr. Owen perceived that the candle was almost gone, so he just turned round in his chair and opened a cupboard that was within reach of his hand. ‘There was another candle, all ready, and he brought it out and lighted it, and blew out the short bit without ever making a single gap in his exposition. And then the young man did not know wAa¢ to think. You see there was hardly another minister in Wales that was as clever at expounding as Mr. Owen. I have known him preach from one text for more than two hours, so of course when he had got seventy verses to talk about he could not be expected to be at any loss. He was used to sitting up at night, too, and did not seem to see how Gwen’s sweetheart was getting so tired he could hardly keep upright on his chair. CORNICLOOO SS (C(O)