The Argosy — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

Mr. Landon. 269 “Ah, well! how very odd, mamma. I don’t believe we any of us ever thought of ¢/a¢ for a minute. We were all of us only thinking of him, and I haven’t a notion if he has any relations, or anything about them. Dear me, I hope they will like me, if he has! How curious it will seem to have fresh brothers and sisters !” ‘Well, my love, I think I shall take your aunt’s letter to your papa; perhaps that will tell us more about him than youcan. At any rate, to-morrow will answer all questions that we shall care to ask.” So leaving her pretty Mabel to dream of that blissful to-morrow, Mrs. Middleton hastened to her husband’s dressing-room, her heart beating fast with joy, pride, and thankfulness. This was the letter, which, after a few words of eager explanation, she read over his shoulder : “My DEAR BrROTHER,—I do think I have made a very pretty job of my first attempt at chaperoning a niece, and I only hope I may be able to do half as well for my own daughters, poor poppets, when they are old enough, as I have for yours. I congratulate you on the prospect of a son-in-law with ten thousand a-year, and who is one of the most charming men in Europe. Only think of our little Mabel proving more attractive than all the smart, accomplished girls he met here! and only think of a week having done it all, and decided the child’s fate for life! He only arrived on Tuesday night—you know Sir George had written to me about him from St. Petersburg, and could not praise him enough, and Sir George is such a straight-laced old gentleman, that one is sure a young man must be almost too proper of whom he writes with enthusiasm. And he told me that he had ten thousand a-year, and was coming to England to buy a place. So we made great fun about it beforehand, and all the girls were ready to set their caps at him, and then when he came he was so charming that they all began to fall really in love with him. As to Lady Macgregor, as I told your wife in my last letter, she got in one of her desperate ways, and was always calling him off from any- one else, to make him do something or other for one of her three. However, it was of no use; marriages are made in Heaven, and Heaven had decided that our Mabel was to be Mrs. Landon. The dear child’s amazement was the most amusing thing, and I do believe she thought of all of you more than of herself. However, he has talked her into a very pretty amount of bashful preference, and as she considers him the best and most superior of created beings, another week’s courtship will find her desperately in love. She is a darling, and of course I will come to her wedding. Mr. Landon will make magnificent settlements, and knows she is not to have a penny. ‘Your affectionate Sister, “ LETITIA.” The father and mother looked at each other, and said, ‘Ten thousand a-year !” ‘And such a good man,” added she. COMMICOOOKS.C©