The Argosy — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

144 Hester. reached the Rectory. The bright little kettle was steaming on the fire, but her sisters had not returned. ‘There was only the rector in the hall putting on his overcoat. ‘Going out again, papa! You have only just come in!” cried Hester in surprise, for her father usually held this hour with the newspaper (which only arrived at tea-time) sacred from disturbance. “JT am going on a sad errand, child. Those poor old people at Guestwycke !” Hester’s heart stood still. She seemed to know everything in a moment, and when her father spoke again it was no news he was telling her. “There are terrible tidings from the Soudan. What a world it is! The son of their old age, and such a son as Talbot Guest! ‘There, I can’t wait. Take the Standard and read for yourself. I have to go and break the news. ‘The doctor’s a coward in such things ; and Lethbridge says it is not his business, though he has managed all their affairs for forty years! ‘Tell Dora where I am gone. I may not be home till late. Is the trap ready, William ? ” The rector groaned to himself as he mounted the box-seat, and drove off. But Hester never uttered a sound. Silently she took up the newspaper and turned to the telegrams. Disaster in the Soudan. Total defeat and annthilation of the expeditionary force. licks Pasha and all his staff slain. A few lines told all that was known. ‘The decoy of the unsuspecting general into the death-ravine—the ambuscade on the heights—the three days’ agony of thirst under ceaseless, pitiless fire—the survivors’ story of the dead soldiers, British and African, lying together in the bloody soil. Then followed a list of the officers of Hicks Pasha’s staff. Hester glanced down the fatal column till she came to this paragraph : ‘Captain Talbot Guest was an officer on the staff of Hicks Pasha, who greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Assalia early in the year. He was the last surviving child and heir of John Guest, Esq., of Guestwycke, in the county of Devon, and Mary, his wife, only daughter of Christopher ‘Talbot, Esq., of Highleigh, Cumberland. Captain Guest was only twenty-six years of age and an officer of great pro- mise.” It was late when the rector returned, tired and wet with his drive in the drizzling rain which was now falling fast—Devon fashion. <A slight, dark figure, with a pale deathly face, met him in the hall and silently took his dripping overcoat. Dora and Kathleen, tired of waiting, had gone off to bed. Only Hester remained to receive her father. She warmed his slippers at the fire and poured out the coffee she had kept hot for him, all with the same serene impassibility. Her father sat down by the fire, and stretched himself, and sipped the fragrant coffee before he spoke. CORNICE LOOKS eC)