The Argosy — page 353: what you’re looking at

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

324 The White Witch. gentleman whom she presumed to call her step-father had asked her, most kindly, to share his hospitality, and repeating her old story of her attachment to the person whom she calls her mother.” Godfrey started. ‘‘Calls her mother!” he repeated. “Is Mrs. Mayne not her mother ?” “ Mrs, Mayne is no more related to her than you are,” said Lady Davenant. ‘* But—but—is it possible that ” he stopped. “That she has deceived you and your family? Unfortunately, yes. This portrait is that of Mary Davenant’s mother,” pointing to the picture which had attracted Godfrey’s attention. ‘You see I am not jealous,” she continued in a tone absolutely free from feeling of any kind. ‘*‘ My husband’s first wife was an old school-friend of mine, and from the same motive which causes me to preserve her portrait I would have cherished her daughter.” ‘Then that is the portrait of ——?” Godfrey felt bewildered yet. “Of the first Mrs. Davenant. She died; and some few years subsequent to that event, I became Mr. Davenant’s second wife. You must have heard of him, I presume ?—the great surgeon, | Jacob Dayenant. c ‘‘Why, yes,’ replied Godfrey, recollection flashing overhim. “I remember his name well, as a man of fame.” ‘‘ He was the chief surgeon of his day ; good, respected, beloved,” said Lady Davenant. ‘The Queen knighted him: and, alas, he died soon afterwards; died young, as may be said. Had he lived, he would have had his baronetage.” © And Mary Dixon was his daughter ? ” | “Mary Davenant was his daughter,” corrected Lady Davenant ; “his daughter and only child. I would have cherished her, I say, as my own daughter after his death, but she was wilful, fond of setting my-authority at naught when she could do it; and when we were abroad, her ill-regulated mind led her to prefer the society of a weak and foolish woman, a wandering continental widow, to mine and to my just authority. However, she has met sae her reward, and I bear her no ill-will.” ‘Of one thing Godfrey began to feel certain: that whatever trials, dangers, and difficulties Mary had brought upon herself by escaping from her step-mother’s care to that of the unfortunate lady who was now his father’s wife, she must have enjoyed cloudless happiness compared with the stern life of routine under Lady Davenant. ‘‘She seems to have been severely punished,” said he, hardly repressing a shiver. “Yes,” The word was snapped out. ‘And now that her self- found protectress turns upon her, as, I conclude, must be the case, though I am but imperfectly acquainted with particulars of the present as well as the past; that Mary has lost her money and injured her health by fretting over her folly and the position to which it has Gomicbooks.co