The Argosy — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

68 GEORGE CONSIDINE. By THE AUTHOR oF ** THE GuHosT OF ALDRUM HALL.” ‘BY the way, Jack, you have never told me how it was that © George Considine left the army. Hadn’t he a disappointment, or something of that sort P” We were sitting together, my brother and I, in the old-fashioned oak-panelled coffee-room of the Hook and Hatchet, at Remhurst, our hunting quarters in the year of grace, ’73, enjoying the pleasant warmth of a genuine wood fire, and a bottle of our landlord’s ’47—very good it was, too—after a long, hard day with the West Dartshire hounds. ‘‘ Ah, that is rather a long story and a sad one,” answered Jack gravely, refilling my glass and his own, whilst I composed myself to listen to the following narrative :— ‘* He was a great chum of mine,” began Jack, “‘ when we were at Sandhurst together. I met him first at Raeford, that summer you went abroad with my father. He and I, poor Wentworth, and two or three other lads were staying down in the holidays. He first met Mary Laborde there. She, too, was staying at Raeford. Lady Lan- chester was her aunt, or cousin, I forget which, and Considine fell desperately in love with her after a boyish fashion: he was about — fourteen, I suppose, at the time. “ After that visit I don’t think Considine saw much of his lady love until he came of age. He asked me to the ball they gave there, and had no eyes for anyone but Miss Laborde, so I was not surprised when he told me, a month later, that they were engaged. Beautiful ? Ay, she was, and she made many an honest heart ache, too. ‘Well, Considine and I went out to India soon after, as you know. Of course his people would not hear of his taking a wife with him ; in fact, I believe they did not altogether like the engagement. [I lost sight of him for two or three years; he was a shockingly bad corres- pondent, and the only letter I ever had from him, about six months after our arrival out there, contained nothing in the world but a description of a pony he and another fellow had bought, and some rather strong language relative to mosquitos’ I answered the in- teresting despatch, and then the correspondence dropped. ‘About three years after, you know I was ordered home invalided, and the first person I met on board the City of Hdinburgh was Con- sidine, looking as if I had parted with him but the day before. He ‘nursed me during that voyage as you would have done, Charlie, and when J got a little better, and candescended to take some interest in my fellow-creatures, he told me how it was we chanced to meet again on our homeward way. Gomichbooksnco