The Argosy — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

It7 ON AND OFF: A STORY OF TWO WORLDLY PEOPLE. By VERA SINGLETON, AUTHOR OF “% My SATURDAYS.” —_4+54——— CHAPTER I. M® and Mrs. Chesney were honeymooning in the Isle of Wight. Having committed the ecclesiastical impropriety of being married in Lent, they were doing penance for it by futile endeavours to enjoy idling about in a British east wind. And as they had come to Ventnor in search of sun and shelter, they found the double pleasure of being baked when they loitered along the esplanade, or rested on the sunny seats with the invalids, and suddenly caught and scarified by the wind, when they grew tired of the hillside nest, and ventured inland, or walked boldly along the shingly or clayey beaches of the island. Under this régime, the bride’s complexion and the bridegroom’s temper suffered about equally, and after a week it became rather hard work to keep up to the proper pitch of felicity. All the more that they had never professed to be deeply in love with each other, but had married for liking and convenience. Ada Lifford’s father had been in the India Office, and accordingly his orphan daughter enjoyed a small pension until her marriage. She was taken care of by arich widowed aunt, but, unluckily for herself, was rather fond of telling everyone that she was independent ; and as old Mrs. Lifford lived in every comfort, it was generally reported that Ada had a handsome income of her own, and would come in for all her aunt’s money when she died. Wilfrid Chesney had been a tolerably promising medical student, and had just taken out his licence to practise, without having learnt more mischief or less science than usual on the way to it, when he had the misfortune to be left a legacy of £44,000. He got drawn into speculative investments, and new companies ; lost money as a shareholder, and determined to have no more to do with any com- pany in which he had no share in the management; went into two new concerns, as director in one and secretary of another, and gave up his profession in order to devote his whole time to doubling his capital. The company of which he was secretary collapsed altogether, and that of which he was director did not prove a gold-mine as fast as was expected ; whereby it came to pass that three months before his marriage he had made the pleasing discovery that his balance at his banker’s was £50, and that his most promising shares could not possibly bring in any dividend for a year. , There was nothing to be done for it but to marry someone with EOMNNIELIOO KS, (EC) m