The Argosy — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

Winifred Power. 267 in America, and was seriously inclined to accept it. An old friend of Mr. Dallas’s had a numismatic mania. Wealth acquired in the States had enabled him to gratify this taste ; and now possessing an almost unique collection, he wished to have it catalogued. He could presumably have found a young man in his own town of Boston to do it for him; but he chose to prefer Dick to any other. Chance had made him acquainted with Mr. Dallas’s position, and Mr. Dallas was one of those people who, without one single recommendation save an indefinable charm, are kept afloat by the tenaclous memory and the inexhaustible patience of their friends. ‘‘T suppose there is no danger of this cataloguing turning out a mere blind, like Sir John’s,” he said—always wonderfully cautious when he himself had nothing to gain or lose. “Not likely,” answered Dick. ‘Such a coincidence would be too unlucky, even for us. And the best guarantee of his good faith is the figure of the offered salary. I think I cannot do better than accept.” ‘Then accept, by all means, my boy. Who knows? You may be able to do even your unfortunate old father a good turn: and we could all join you. Georgie might marry the chief share- holder in some silver mine, and you find your way into the good graces of an heiress.” A pause. Dick and Georgie wereboth rather flattered, while the bewildered Mrs. Dallas was engaged in her usual chase after the nimble minds of her family. Only Dolly stood a stranger in their midst, her heart feeling like a lump of ice, her eyes full of a wistful disenchantment that would have struck pity in anybody sufficiently at leisure to heed her. Dick disappeared to answer the letter; his father, dreaming of an El Dorado, left his work, already in arrears, and went to smoke on the Boulevard, while Mrs. Dallas and Georgie kept up a lively babble, and Dolly answered without understanding them. The poor child was quite unable to re-act as a stronger, prouder, and more complex nature would have done, against the sorrow that had overtaken her. Her character, all of a piece, was completely sub- merged for the moment by the waters of bitterness closing over It. ‘Have you a headache?” asked Georgie at last, after receiving a dozen random answers. ** No,” answered Dolly, too miserable even to feign. “I daresay dear Dolly is troubled at not hearing from The Limes. Indeed, we all have cause for anxiety,” remarked Mrs. Dallas. “Yes,” said Dolly, just as mechanically as before. The minutes went on. Perhaps it was the anguish of her heartbeats that made every second ticked off the clock seem like the blow of a little hammer on her temples. Dick re-entered only just in time to save her from a burst of weeping. ‘The instant he appeared she rose involuntarily, and announced ‘that she must go. Cconniclooolks (C(O)