The Argosy — page 266: what you’re looking at

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

Court Netherleigh. 249 Harriet, formerly Harriet Chenevix, had some trouble to make both ends meet. The little baronet was fond of quoting the old saying, that he had to cut his coat according to his cloth. ‘There- fore, when Lady Adela went to them for a prolonged stay, the ample allowance made for her to Sir Sandy was most welcome. Upon the close of Adela’s short visit to Court Netherleigh in the autumn, she returned to her mother. That visit had not been pro- ductive of any good result as regarded her cheerfulness of mind and manner ; for her life seemed only to grow more dreary. Lady Acorn did not approve of this, and took care daily to let Adela know she did not, dealing out to her sundry reproaches. One day when Adela was unusually low spirited, or, as Lady Acorn called it, grumpy, the Countess made use of a threat—that she should be transported to that gloomy Swiss fastness the MaclIvors had settled themselves into, and stop there until she mended her manners. A chance word sometimes bears fruit. Adela, a faint light rising to her eyes as she heard this, lifted her voice eagerly. ‘‘ Mother, let me go; send me thither as soon as you please,” she said. ‘It will at least be better for me there than here, for I shall be out of the world.” “Out of the world!” snapped Lady Acorn. ‘“ You can’t be much more out of it than you are down here in Oxfordshire.” “Yes, I can. The neighbours, those who are at their seats in the country, come in to see us, and papa sometimes brings people home from town. Let me go to Harriet.” It was speedily decided. Lady Acorn, tart though she was with Adela, had her welfare at heart, and she thought the thorough change might be of benefit to her. An old friend, who chanced to be going abroad, took charge of Lady Adela to Geneva, Sir Sandy MaclIvor and his wife met her there, and took her back with them to the chateau. That was in October. Adela found the chateau as isolated as she could well desire, and therefore she was pleased with it, and she told Sir Sandy and Harriet she was glad to have come. They had never thought of staying in this chateau for the winter ; they meant to go to Rome early in December. But as that month approached, Adela evinced a great dislike to move. She would not go to Rome to encounter the English there, she told them; she would stay where she was. It a little perplexed the MaclIvors: Adela had grown now so weak and low-spirited that they did not like to cross her, or to insist upon it that she must go; neither did they care to give her up as their inmate, for her allowance was of conse- quence to them. “What if we make up our minds to stay here for the winter, Harriet ?” at length said Sir Sandy, who was as easy-tempered, genial- hearted a little laird as could be met with in or out of Scotland ; though he stood but five feet high in his shoes, and nothing could CONnRICHOOKS. EO