The Argosy — page 259: what you’re looking at

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

240 My Furst Fee. but surely increased, and though there were years of up-hill work, yet it is perfectly true that “ce n’est que le premier pas qui cofte.” I had at last got a chance, and I seized it. I worked with double energy because at the bottom of my soul I had another object besides the one of making the five girls at home proud of me; I wanted a small, fair, blue-eyed Lucia to be proud of me; and I wanted to be > able to lay at her feet all that is best and grandest in this life. But she was a rich man’s daughter, and I was a struggling physician. It was not till I had freed myself of all debt—and though still a poor man I was comparatively rich, for I had a good and increasing practice—that at last I made up my mind to ask Lucia to be my wife. I should not have had the face to do it even then, only a young good- for-nothing aristocrat was perpetually coming to the house, and I knew that if Lucia, so young, simple and innocent, became the wife of that man, her life would be miserable. The fear of this, and some amount of jealousy, perhaps, made me speak out one day. I shall never forget Lucia’s face when I had said some strong, earnest, passionate words. She put her little hand once more into mine and looked up with her beautiful truthful eyes, as she half sobbed : ‘*Qh—do you really mean it? Because, somehow, I think I have —loved you ever since ——” ‘Ever since you gave me my first fee, my darling,” I said, as I drew her beautiful head on my shoulder and—vwell, never mind the rest. ‘Well, Lucia,” I added, ‘‘I loved you the first moment I saw you. So you see I loved you /omg before you cared for me.” But Lucia, who is just a little matter-of-fact, shook her head decidedly, and said that ‘Aat was all nonsense. There was still the question as to what Mr. Dillon would say about dt, but our true love, which had had to wait so long, this time ran smoothly. Mr. Dillon, who still suffered from his wretched constitu- tion, was delighted at Lucia’s choice, and said all kinds of compli- mentary things about my rising fame and my other qualities And so we were married, and the five girls from home were bridesmaids, though they soon afterwards married from our house under Lucia’s care. And though I often tell Lucia that the last person she should have married was a popular physician, considering she is never ill, yet she always shakes her pretty golden head, and says gravely : “But, perhaps, Arthur, some of the children say inherit papa’s wretched constitution.” As to the story of the ginger lozenge, Lucia~and I kept that a secret till Mr. Dillon died. He left Lucia all his money—and so ends this true story of My First FEE. ECOPMICLIOO KS, (EO)