The Argosy — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

The Eve of St. Parindge. a7 married Bulmer, did I not go abroad in the vain hope of forgetting you, and nearly die of brain fever at Genoa.” ‘And when you recovered, and came back to England, I was a widow,” she suggested with some archness, yet blushing vividly. “Ves, a rich widow, and I was a poor man. You were farther off from me than ever.” Mrs. Bulmer stood looking at him in a state bordering on be- wilderment. ‘And this was the reason of your coldness and estrangement?” she said at last. ‘‘My poor Arthur, how I have misjudged you! And now ——’” “Now I am no longer a poor Admiralty clerk, but my uncle’s heir ; while you have, I believe, already pledged your word to Algy Merrick.” ‘‘T have no more intention of marrying Captain Merrick than of performing a journey to the moon,” she said, advancing to the open window as she spoke. “I have only been tantalising him into the belief that he has won a wager of fifty pounds.” As she finished the sentence, a figure flitted across the verandah only a few yards from where Julia Bulmer was standing. It was Algy Merrick. He had heard every word of that last sentence. Luckily he did not stop for more, or the shout of joy which Arthur uttered might have shattered his nerves, and the sight of Julia in Arthur’s arms, in which she was encircled not two minutes later, might have paralysed him for life. As it was, it was Algy Merrick, not Arthur Seymour who was called away from Fotherington Manor by important business that morning. When the shooters returned, Major Ricketts found a check for fifty pounds lying in an envelope on his table, with only the one word ‘“‘ Lost,” for explanation. That Mrs. Bulmer had refused him was the general supposition among the smokers that evening, for it was not till long after the party had broken up that the mystery was fully cleared by a paragraph in the Morning Fost to the effect that Mrs. Bulmer, of Bulmer Court, was about to be led to the altar by Mr. Arthur Seymour. Of course, Mimi was asked to be principal bridesmaid, but she gave it as her intention that she would have nothing whatever to do with the wedding unless Captain Algy Merrick was invited, and being a young lady of much decision of character, she carried her point. The result of the gay doings at Bulmer Court is, that another wedding may be expected before the season is over—at least, so wise folks say Conniclooo! SS) (C©)