The Argosy — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

146 The Invalids’ Corner. form a text to go round the ugly, dark-brown galleries? He smiled to himself as he remembered how the letters would curl up in a sticky festoon on his fingers; how crooked they got; and how, finally, when it was really done and duly arranged in heaps in the aisle, ready for erection, the old clerk took advantage of their temporary absence at luncheon to prepare a surprise for them: had put up the text just as the letters came, anyhow, and by the time they had returned, had completed sentences that would have defied the cleverest hand at solving ‘‘ buried sentences,” that ever won a prize in any society journal of the present day. | Perhaps the thought of old days had somewhat obscured Major Priestly’s generally acute senses, but he could have declared that he heard Edith’s voice distinctly as he awoke from his half-dreamy state to recognise Drayton, and heard her say: ‘‘ The other side of the chine will be best, Dugald ; then we shall not be in the way of that poor gentleman.” Involuntarily he closed his eyes once more, and lay very quiet. Then he opened them again, and saw on his nght hand the fair, oval face, and waves of brown, soft hair that he could never forget while life lasted, as belonging to his lost love. Older a little ; yes, certainly ; but otherwise the Edith of eight years ago sat there unchanged. The old, old feeling surged over his breast, and he knew ina moment that the love he had felt for her was only asleep, and hadrisen, stronger than ever, from its repose, to assert its empire over him once more. ‘He watched her carefully, noted the calm, sweet countenance it rested him to look at, saw how her dexterous fingers arranged her com- panion’s chair and rugs in the warmest place, fronting the very pretti- est part of the view. And Major Priestly thought testily, how he had vainly tried to get Stokes to put his chair in a position that would enable him just to catch that reflection of the sun on the gleaming sand-banks; and had as vainly told him that his rug would slip off him, and leave his feet exposed to the air, if it were not tucked under them properly. It did not take many hours to make him profoundly abhor Edith’s companion. He could not make out in the least who he could be. None of the brothers’ names would return to his mind; but he felt certain had one been named Dugald, he must have remembered such an uncommon cognomen. ‘Then the idea flashed into his mind, remaining there obstinately: Edith was married, and this long, ill-looking invalid was her husband. In the meantime Edith had been gazing attentively at Major Priestly, and had begun to think in her turn that she was dreaming. Since her lover’s marriage she had never heard of him. She had had -an illness, on learning his perfidy, that left her weak for months, and after that no one had cared to mention his name before her. She knew he had children, but no mention of his wife’s elopement and subsequent death had ever reached her ears, and she believed CONIC MOOOKS (E©)