The Argosy — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

Thought-Reading at Lady Clanjanifry’s. 107 agonies of unassuaged pique from the way he slammed it, but in reality he only felt that his five o’clock toast was cooling below. ‘Then the house was quiet, and Mabel Barrington flung herself on the sofa. ‘“‘ How can he say there is nothing in it?” she sobbed. ‘‘ Why, I’ve felt it over and over again, and this very day I was just thinking about him, when the door opened and in he came!” A proof of the disputed topic of thought-reading which might have convinced Colonel Lyndhurst more than any better argument had she only thought of mentioning it before. The bell rang, and Mabel started up. Could it be her mother returning ? No, it was Frederick Lyndhurst’s voice once more in parley at the door ; he must be coming back to retract all he had said against her favourite hobby; and, hastily brushing aside her tears, she deter- mined that he should find her unmoved though inwardly not disin- clined for reconciliation. But alas, the front door slammed once again; through the open win- dows she heard the footsteps she had learnt to know in the last few weeks, hurriedly passing down the street; and she was aware that now there was to be no reconciliation between her lover and herself. The fact was that the Colonel, in passing the hatstand in Mrs. Bar- rington’s hall, in place of his own glossy hat had seized a large and well-worn beaver, the property of the late Mr. Barrington, which his widow always kept en evidence as a precautionary measure against vagabonds of all sorts; and it was not till he was half way to the club, and James had contentedly regained his tea-tray, that the hapless lover discovered his mistake. It was mortifying to be obliged to return, but it was impossible to proceed in the head-gear of the late Mr. Bar- rington, who had prided himself on a supposed likeness to John Bright and had dressed in support of it. Hence Colonel Lyndhurst’s second appearance at the door, his colloquy with James, and his retreat- ing footsteps. The household in Hans Place were to know him no more. IT. *‘ WHATEVER is the matter with Mabel?” asked Tom Barrington, the next time he came up from Aldershot, and found himself alone with his mother. ‘I never saw a girl so ‘down’ in my life. Hasn’t the affair with Lyndhurst come to anything ?” “I don't know,” sighed Mrs. Barrington, weakly. ‘‘ He was here the day I went down to Harrow with the Simplesons. Such a dull day we had of it, Tom ! And I had to sit with my back to the horses all the way, for neither Mrs. Simpleson nor her sister can do so. And they were so dreadfully silly about their boys! I wished I had never con- sented. to go at all, just to be bored to death with conversation about Algy and Alfy, and dragged up a hill like the side of a house, because of the horses : ‘Well, about Lyndhurst?” growled Tom, interrupting his mother. CONnniclooolkks (C(O)