The Argosy — page 323: what you’re looking at

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

304 Catherine versus Kate. discover if she really loved me. So I went to her and said, ‘ Frankly,, Kate, I love you well, and I live in two rooms in a narrow street,and I fare hardly, and when I go abroad, I walk or take an omnibus, and my pleasures are few and cheap. Will you share all this with me ?’ ” ‘“‘ And did she say no, sir?” “Not exactly. She flushed very red and she rose up and said, ‘John, how dare you treat me with such contempt ?’—and she swept from the room, like a very duchess. For she is as tall as you are, Catherine, and when she chooses, very stately and majestic.” ‘And from this, sir, you think the lady did not love you ?” “Surely, my good Catherine! She reproached me for asking her to share my poverty.” “But you had become rich, sir.” ‘She did not know of that.” “Oh, sir, I think you must mistake. News travels fast. Mark my words: she dd know, and, knowing, did she not mean, ‘ How dare you treat me with such contempt thus to employ finesse to discover if I love?’ Sir, I tell you again that men know naught of the delicacy of a woman’s sensibilities! Indeed, sir, I can but echo your cousin’s words: How dared you try to deceive her? How dared you doubt her single-heartedness ? How dared you try her nobility 2? Oh, fie, sir! How dared you approach the woman you loved with a falsehood upon your lips P” “Catherine! you take away my breath!” “JT beg your pardon, sir. I apologise. I spoke warmly, sir, because my own heart felt very full. Your story reminds me of my own, and it recals past days when—if I was not entirely happy—at least the hope of happiness lay before me. It was a cruel thrust which took that hope from me. Heaven help the poor lady whom you say you loved, if she has suffered as I have! ” “Whom I say I loved! Catherine, you go too far! Whom I say I loved! Why, I loved her so well that it is for her sake I have shut myself up here, seeing no one, going nowhere ! Catherine,, I believed you were my friend.” “Tam indeed your friend, sir. But J am a woman, and my heart aches for the woman to whom my friend and master has given pain. I—who have endured the like—know how deeply you must have wounded her.” : He sighed. ‘‘ But she was over hasty with me. She went away at once, out of my reach. I meant no harm.” ‘Sir, the boy who plays with a pistol means no harm. But he may shoot some one to death, notwithstanding.” ‘She has made me no sign since.” “What sign would you have a proud woman make to a half hearted lover, sir ? ” ‘Catherine, your words are very bitter, but your face is kind. We were cousins. She might have sent for me, or written to me.” CORMICLOOOKS eC) Ee SS _