The Argosy — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

74 Adonas, Q.C. for the pair of gloves, but you didn’t make much of it. It will end as I said it would.” Then he kissed her and said good-night; for she was to be his wife: and she passed on again, shaking her head half in scorn, half laughingly. After all, she did love him in a way.. But when he had turned alone into the smoking-room he threw up the gas with an impatient jerk, and down went a bundle of cigars upon the table. ‘“ Dangerous,” he muttered to himself; “far too dangerous. Fool that I was to propose such a thing! That fellow Adonais, if he dare only !—or Gabrielle either ——~” -A long half hour of doubt, of heavy striding to and fro in the room; then he turned the gas slowly down again. “She never wou/d dare—that. And for the rest—what does it matter?” IT, ‘THE carriages roll along, the people hurry to and fro on the pave- ment, the church clocks chime in the distant steeples ; and the after- noon sun glares down on all the toil and turmoil, and plays with the reddish-brown hair and moustache of Mr. Adonais. He is in Oxford Street—walking with long, swinging steps, and thinking as usual. What were his thoughts like? and where was the heart of Adonais? Gone. The heart was gone. He had given it to a girl with grave, dark eyes, and a beautiful face; a girl with whom he had latterly ~ spent much of his time. It was gone for ever. ‘She loves me,” he was saying to himself. ‘‘ Adonais, she loves — you. Gabrielle loves you! The roll of the carriage wheels echoes it, the footsteps of the people repeat it to me, and the clocks and the bells chime it out to me. Oliver Adonais, Gabrielle loves you. Each house I pass takes life and says it to me—always the same; and every street I turn into breaks out anew, but always with the same—Gabrielle, loves you. They must know—I must know; they cannot be wrong—I cannot be wrong—you do love me, Gabrielle: we cannot both be wrong :—you do love me.” A beggar child asked him for a penny, and he gave her half-a-crown. A broken-down friend stopped him timidly for the loan of a pound, and he promised him ten. Well, it was for the sake of Gabrielle. A painter’s boy brushed roughly past him, and stained his coat-sleeve a brilliant red; but Adonais walked on with a smile, thinking that here was something for Gabrielle to laugh at. Oliver Adonais, Q.C., with a painted coat in Oxford Street! Meanwhile a carriage stood at a doorway. Inside sat a girl with a beautiful face, and grave dark eyes that saw—yet without seeing— what was passing around her. She was there herself, but her thoughts were not there. They were with Mr. Adonais! Gabrielle Ryan in dreamland ; dreaming of Adonais ! And her dreams ranthus: ‘‘I love him. This is your punishment, GEomichbooks.co m