The Argosy — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

22 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. “and if he can really wait, stay with him until we have finished.” ‘You see I was right,” whispered Evelyn to Philip. * Right?” he replied, not understanding her. “That some adieux cannot be made in public.” “Hang it!” thought Philip, glancing at his adversary. ‘“She’s playing with us all somehow—as false as a hare!” How light a heart can grow ina moment! Louisa wondered how she could ever have doubted Marco. She saw now what it was— that he had never forgotten her—it was but the coyness of love which had withheld him from asking for her—just as the desperate pain of silent parting had now driven him back. He had come, and that was enough. But as she entered the drawing-room she started. Where was he? Had he vanished? Before she had time for a thought, he stepped forward from the window, letting the curtains close again behind him. Oh, what a face of agony he had! And how strange it was that even that did not make her feel less happy. “TI have come to say good-bye,” he said, “and to bring back that.” He held out a little volume of poems with Louisa’s name in it, which they had read together during their first meetings by the sea, and which he had retained in memory of those happy days. “Tt was a gift,” gasped Louisa. After all, there was something in his face which frightened her. ‘This was no lover’s sorrow. It was _ terror; it was despair. ‘‘'Take it again,” he said, in that strange, low voice ; “ take it, and forget me. I shall never forget you,”’—Louisa’s heart leaped— “‘nor your mother, nor your home. It was a vision I had, and it is gone. Well for you that itis so! Good-bye, Miss Connell! good- bye for ever !” “Oh, Marco, do not go like this!” sobbed the girl, in heart- rending bewilderment, as he turned to the door. She felt herself powerless as a silken thread to hold him, and in her misery she uttered what she knew were futile pleas the moment they passed her lips: ‘‘ Stay and see papa—and Percy.” “Tet me go,” he cried, drawing away his hand. “It was all a mistake, and we must part.” And here again Louisa’s weakness came to her rescue. A larger nature would have been maddened by its pain into utter uncon- sciousness of everything except its present anguish. But Louisa remembered Evelyn, and the slow tortures of days to come. Without a word she walked out of the drawing-room before Marco. Without a word she stepped before him down the hall. But at the dining- room door she paused, and threw it open. “Papa, Percy, Signor Learli came back to say good-bye to yeu ; and as he is really in haste, I know you don’t mind being interrupted.” EOLPMICLIOOKS,E©