The Argosy — page 287: what you’re looking at

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

266 Winifred Power. relate various pleasing anecdotes of unjust suspicion and deceitful appearances. Georgie’s sobs gradually subsided, and her mother produced a jar of her favourite quince jam for her especial solace. That night, when Winifred was sitting alone in her studio, think- | ing, if the truth must be told, of Mark, and wondering when she should see him again, there came a gentle tap at the door. ‘* Are you there, Winifred ?” asked Dolly’s voice outside. “Ves.” Winifred sprang up, and came forward through the semi- darkness, smiling, with a prescience of the coming confidence. Dolly did not keep her waiting for it long; in her practical, prattling way, ” transfigured to prettiness here and there through a touch of real feeling, she told her that “‘she knew Mr. Dallas was beginning to care for her now.” She had been quite enchanted at his kissing her hand, and related that circumstance, among others, with all possible detail. Winifred listened appreciatively ; answered warmly; was genuinely delighted. ‘The news from The Limes is exciting also,” casually commented Dolly at last, when she positively .had nothing more to tell about herself. ‘‘ Altogether, it has been an evening of emotion. I suppose we shall hear from mamma soon and from your mother? They are both bad correspondents. The only person who seems to have behaved well to Lady Hatherley is Mark. I should be glad to know his opinion of the whole business. He never writes to you, does he ?” ‘‘ Never,” answered Winifred, as a beginning to many other things that she intended to say. But all at once her ideas vanished. Dolly’s voice sounded in her ears without conveying any meaning to them. She involuntarily clasped her hands together, and held them so tightly, as though the Winifred of her dreams, the Winifred she had meant to be, but was not, were enclosed there. For Dolly’s question. had unconsciously enlightened her, and conveyed to her the humiliating conviction that Mark’s silence robbed self-sacrifice, work, duty, life itself, of charm. Martha Freake was not so well next day. She frequently alternated from one state to the other; and Winifred had a melancholy feeling that the end was very near. Finding her now so weak, Winifred quietly decided that the greater part of the day must be given up to nursing her, and she consequently let Dolly go alone to the Dallases to ask for further news from The Limes. Dolly, nothing loth, as may be imagined, started off, the recollection of the previous evening keeping up sweet music in her heart as she hurried through the streets. But a surprise awaited her. Instead of the scene that she had expected, viz., a new letter from Gertrude, and the family party dis- cussing it in their own peculiar fashion, she found that no fresh news had come from The Limes; while the anxiety this might have caused under ordinary circumstances, was quite forgotten in a different source of*interest, Dick had been offered employment EMPMIGLOYO KS.(e0) m