The Argosy — page 231: what you’re looking at

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

214 Miss Oldham’s Chotce. He had evidently ranged himself amongst those who dzd@ consider Miss Oldham positively beautiful. Miss Oldham had not come to Boroughbourne without introduc- tions ; but the Boroughbourne season was only just commencing, so that people were only beginning to arrive there now. Besides that, she had been busy looking out for a house, and had never even had time to think of presenting her introductions. Miss Oldham was not a rich widow; but she was what ought to have been just as popular: a rich unmarried lady with nobody in all the world to say her yea or nay. Her mother had been dead many Jong years ; and her father—an indigo planter in Ceylon—had died immediately upon his arrival in England, his native country, after an -absence of forty years abroad. ‘That took place when Miss Oldham was twenty-three. Her father’s death was a terrible blow. They were so fond of each other, and they had been looking forward for years to this coming home, where they were to be so gay and happy. ‘Circumstances had prevented their settling in England sooner; and strange to say, although Miss Oldham had been educated on the Con- tinent, she had never put foot on English soil. Perhaps, after all, it “was not so strange when one remembered that Mr. Oldham was a seif- made man, entirely without relations. After the first bitterness of her father’s loss was beginning to pass away a little, it seemed to her that if she had only had one—only one —relation, however poor, that she could have turned to, it would at Jeast have been better than this desolation. And then as Old Time still rolled on, and something like her former gaiety of spirit came back to her—for she was still young and vigorous—she bethought herself of all the packets of introductions her father had brought over with him. Let aman be self-made as he may, he is not a millionaire for nothing. Only another short year found Miss Oldham plunged in a whirl of gaiety. She began by engaging an elderly lady as a chaperon, and plodded patiently through a long relay of elderly ladies ; until at twenty-six, -despairing of ever finding one she could be happy with, she resolved ~to brave the world alone. Whether it was that Miss Oldham was unlucky, or whether she really had the grave fault of.not being able to get on well with elderly companions, it is impossible to say ; but at any rate, at twenty-six, she began to live alone. For a young and handsome woman, with a less clear look in her eyes, and less haughty poise to her head, the plan might not have been so feasible ; but for her there seemed to be no great difficulty rising in the way. At twenty-seven, somehow or other, the phantasy seized her that above all things she should like to hire a furnished house at Boroughbourne. So she had come down here and taken rooms in the hotel, and begun to look out fora house. Yes, but the business was to find one to suit her—for Miss Oldham was fastidious. CORNICE OOO KS. (EC) m