The Argosy — page 303: what you’re looking at

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

284 Only a Year or Two Ago. able to carry it unless he could eat with it. “I think not, uncle ; I am not used to wine; and I had better be getting home.” As he went out at the hall door, a lady came up the steps, and he stood aside to let her pass in. Charles knew her for his uncle’s wife : Aunt Emma, as he called her when he was a little boy and she used to kiss and play with him. Mr. Lavender was standing at his study door when she entered the hall, apparently gazing at the other door which Charles had gone out of. “ How painfully ill that young man looks!” exclaimed Mrs. Lavender. ‘‘ Eh?” responded her husband dreamily, as if his sense of hearing and some of his other senses also had gone a wool gathering. ‘‘ Who? What ?” “That gentleman just gone out. He is not fit to be about on foot, Iam sure. Is he one of your clients, George ? ” “‘That’s my nephew,” was the gnm reply. ‘‘ Young Charley Lavender.” Mrs. Lavender gave a little shriek of surprise. “ Oh George! Why, he is dying !” “ Humph!” grunted Mr. Lavender. “TI did not like to stare at him, he looked so ill; but in the glimpse I caught of his face, it struck me as being like someone’s I knew, or had known; it must have been your brother’s. Is he dying, George ?” “He thinks he is. Came here to ask me to allow an income to his mother when he shall be gone. When he shall be gone; that’s how he puts it, Emma.” Mrs. George Lavender made no reply to this. She had always deemed her husband harder than was right in regard to his brother’s widow and son ; but, being a submissive and non-interfering wife, she had kept her opinion to herself. ‘‘ Poor Charley!” she sighed now in thought, ‘‘ poor poor Charley !—and he was such a nice, gentle boy ! What is the matter with him?” she asked aloud. “The same thing, I gather, that was the matter with his father,” replied Mr. Lavender. “Did you give him anything to eat, George ?—or ask him to stay luncheon? He looked as though he needed it.” ‘“ Jt is not lunch time yet,” retorted the lawyer. ‘“‘ Indeed it is; close upon it. It wants but five minutes to one.” ‘“T asked him to have some wine, and he refused it; he said he wanted to get home.” Mr. Lavender did not eat much lunch himself that pe When his wife expressed her concern, he put it upon his cold. But he was thinking. He was thinking of the young fellow just gone out; he was thinking of his dead brother, and of their youthful days when the two lads had been all-in-all to each other, and of their united early man- hood. The quarrel came later. There were faults on both sides of CORNICLOOKS (eo)