The Argosy — page 192: what you’re looking at

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

1. 2 =e = oe - i ~e i 4 4 fe = b. | Court Netherleigh. 177 “ How long will it be before the end comes, you would ask,” she said, for he did not conclude the sentence. ‘‘ That I do not know. I mean to put the question to Dr. Stair to-morrow, and I am sure he will answer it to the best of his belief. It may be pretty near.” “Do you suffer pain ? ” “Always; more or less. ‘That will get worse, I suppose, before it is over.” “Alas, alas!” he mentally breathed. “Should not your friends be made acquainted with this, dear Miss Upton P ” ““ My chief friends are acquainted with it. I have no very close friends. The Rector of Netherleigh is the closest, and he has known it for some time. ‘That is, he knows I am suffering from a dis- order that I shall probably never get the better of. Your mother knows it, for I told her this evening; and now you knowit. My faithful maid Annis knows a little—Frost and Doctor Stair know most of all. Nobody else knows of it in the wide world: and I do not wish that anyone should know.” Paeee mente Right to them?” “Why, what other friends have I? Lady Acorn, you may Say. She has never been as a friend tome. Your mother and I, had opportunity been given, might have been the truest and dearest friends, but I and Betsy Acorn, never. She and I do not assimilate. Time enough to proclaim my condition to the world when I become go ill that it cannot be concealed.” “JT wish I could die in your place!” he too thoughtlessly exclaimed. Though, indeed, trouble of all kinds seemed to be pressing so sharply upon him that he almost did wish it. “Don’t talk silly nonsense,” reproved Miss Upton. ‘“ You have your work to do in the world, your duties to fulfil. Rely upon it, God does not call us away so long as any remain to be done.” “The young die as well as the old. Strong men, men in the prime of life, as I am, are taken away.” “For some wise purpose that we cannot understand here,” she rejoined. ‘Such a man seems to leave a multitude of duties unful- filled behind him ; I grant you that; but in God’s sight, when He summons him away, the duties must be over. How short is life at the best!” she added, in a dreamy tone. ‘‘ What a little while, looking back, I seem to have lived!” She fell into a reverie, and they scarcely exchanged another word for the rest of the way. “You will not speak of this to the Acorns,” she said to Mr. Grubb, as the carriage stopped at the hotel. ‘Certainly not, as you do not wish it. Or to anyone else.” “It would only give a fillip to Lord Acorn’s extravagance. With the prospect of coming into Court N etherleigh close at hand, he would increase his debts thick and threefold.” Francis Grubb nodded assent ; he knew how true it was: he shook VOL. XXXII, N COMIC OOOKS.E®