The Argosy — page 217: what you’re looking at

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

200 A Country Heart. plete master—a day which is to be only sunshine, and which is to throw a foretaste of radiance over all the coming years of his life. He has scarcely seen Kate to speak to since the day he had accom- panied her into Torferry, but he had been twice over to Shepstone preparing for her reception at the farmhouse, and he thought with pride of all the preparations for her and her mother’s comfort. ‘There was a real Devonshire dinner provided, which would have served to feed a dozen hungry troopers; ducks, and plum tart, a junket, and unlimited cream. He hoped the London ladies would be able to put up with Mrs. Loveys’ country cooking and service. Her crockery and glass he had supplemented with contributions from the Park, surreptitiously abstracted and brought down in the Mermaid beforehand. | And the final instructions, how Mrs. and Miss Verey were to meet him at the landing stage where the little d/ermazd lay, with all her glory of new cushions, were conveyed to Kate in a note, which it cost Harry some time and pains to compose ; for, besides being some- what inapt with his pen, it was the first ttme he had ever written to this girl who was so gracious, so beneficent to him, giving him her attention, her brightest smiles, her kindest words, he almost fancied her love. If she did not love him already she should do so soon— she, who was so quick, must know what crowning boon was to make his twenty-first birthday perfect, what birthday gift he was going to ask at her hands. And this note was lying unopened with a heap of other uninter- esting correspondence on Miss Verey’s dressing-table, where she had tossed it down among the Graphics and Punchs which were weekly forwarded by Mrs. Chamberlain: for had not Captain Anstey’s card been brought to her at the same moment, and was not the card followed by the owner P Harry had left the note to be sent to Myrtle Bank on that Monday afternoon when he rode out to Shepstone to make his final prepara- tions ; to settle some deck chairs in the orchard, where Mrs. Loveys was to spread afternoon tea. And Kate Verey tossed it aside un- noticed, as she recognised her lover’s footstep on the gravel under the ‘bedroom window, and then heard the sharp tinkle of the door bell, and the opening and shutting of the drawing-room door, the hurried scuffle of the maidservant on the stairs, and knew that the event on which she had this summer staked her happiness had come to pass. And, after that, the pleasant little tea-party—which poor Harry thought was a special institution for his benefit—followed as naturally at Myrtle Bank as it did when Captain Anstey dropped in, four after- noons a week, in Lowndes Square. And the yachting engagement, with possibilities of another engagement tenderly implied in its persuasive ‘“ Will you come, Miss Kate?” was made; and the young Squire’s carefully considered scrawl was swept aside and forgotten as com- pletely as his birthday expedition and his whole existence. CONIC MOOOKS (E(©) m