The Argosy — page 366: what you’re looking at

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

The White Witch. 337 first ; Mary, on the contrary, was most enthusiastically taken with her. Lady Davenant was proud, cold, unpopular, and mistrustful of new acquaintances. Mary was high-spirited, fond of society, and much admired. Mrs. Lang was a most fascinating, lovable woman, with soft, sweet, gentle manners; just the woman to win the heart and mind of a young girl: and she won Mary Davenant’s. By-and-by Lady Davenant thought it might be as well if she moved on to Rome earlier than she had intended to go. What Godfrey Mayne had heard in Norfolk of Dr. Lang was correct. In himself the Doctor was a man to be respected, but he died early, leaving a very slender provision for his widow. Of their two sons, the elder had died; the younger, while training for a surgeon, had become so wild and unmanageable that he was shipped off to Australia by his father, with a hundred pounds in his pocket, and a recommendation not to return. Later, upon hearing of his father’s death, the young man hastened back to England to his mother, whose idol he was, and always had been. For her elder son, Reginald, she had not cared; for the younger, Edward, she would at any time have sacrificed her own life. He was a slight, fair, innocent- faced young man, fascinating and specious in manner as his mother. But there existed this difference in them: that while she was really kind-hearted and wished well to all the world (though she would have sacrificed all the world to serve her beloved son), he was essentially of a bad nature. This son was with Mrs. Lang at Naples; and Lady Davenant, prudent and cautious, soon feared him more than she feared the mother. One afternoon, when Lady Davenant made a rather unexpected call at Mrs. Lang’s, she found Mary curled up on a cushion at her feet, while Edward sat close by the young girl, sketching her face, and handing her some choice fruit between whiles. On the following day Lady Davenant gave her servants orders for the removal to Rome. But it is not a mere change of residence that can defeat the schemes of a crafty woman: and Mrs. Lang had learnt to be crafty in the interests of her darling son. ‘That young man, wise of fore- sight, had taken up the notion that a marriage with Mary Davenant would lift him for ever above the ills of life. He did not particularly care for herself; but he cared for her money. Five thousand pounds may not be very much of a sum in itself, but to a lazy young fellow who is fond of spending and not fond of working, and who, more- over, does not possess five thousand pence of his own, it looks like a huge fortune. ‘And after the money’s spent, should it get spent,” reasoned Edward one day with his mother, ‘“‘ there’s her voice to fall back upon: it will bring in its thousands yearly.” ‘‘ Of course it will, my darling,” acquiesced the gentle lady ; “‘you must take care, Edward, not to miss her.” So that quite close upon the arrival of Lady Davenant in Rome, she found that Mrs. Lang and her son had also established them- VOL, XXXVIII. z Gomichboo (E(©) m