The Argosy — page 201: what you’re looking at

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

184 Lady Valeria. bound to scorch and die, and what the better is the candle?” she mused with an air of philosophic enquiry. ‘Don’t talk so please,” pleaded the girl with pained earnestness. “She is so good and so—I am sure— is he. It would be a Jeautefudl thing for them to love one another.” “Tet them. Now, look at the gift I have brought for you,” and she placed a rough wood box in Elsie’s hands. Inside, on a bed of cotton-wool, lay a hard, green, unopened bud, in shape like that of a large passion flower. It hada slight spicy perfume, but the petals were fast bound in their green sheath. The girl looked puzzled. ‘‘ Will it ever bloom ?” ‘Perhaps, yes; perhaps, no; only for one night. It is called the Flower of Good Luck in the country where they grow. ‘The girls say itis a charm to bring your lover to you, or to gain your wish from him. Keep it and see. It may never open.” Elsie lay back smiling to herself. She felt Mrs. Beltran’s caressing hand on her forehead once or twice. Her eyes closed languidly, her breathing grew more measured, and at last she slept. One little hand lay palm upwards beside her, the other had mechanically lifted itself and was lightly clasped on her breast. Mrs. Beltran lifted it cautiously, and with scant ceremony deliber- ately unfastened the shabby black gown. A ribbon encircled Elsie’s white throat, and was tucked in among the folds of her under-clothing. She twitched it forth and with it a small silken bag. A smile of utter contempt curled Mrs. Beltran’s mobile lips while she examined the contents ; a tiny cross made from two rough morsels of briar fastened by a silver thread, and some dry shrivelled petals. She re- placed it, fastened the dress and lifted the hand into its former posi- tion, and then quietly resumed her work, contemplating the girl at intervals with her dark expressionless gaze, with much the air of a chess-player who, finger on piece, decides on his next move—pawn, queen, queen’s knight? ‘The problem was a complicated one and the moves many, but she seemed to see her game at last, and with a meditative smile put aside her lace and standing beside the couch laid her hand on Elsie’s forehead. ‘“‘ The Fair Prince,” she said softly, and noiselessly stole away. So there came a night when Elsie found the dull green bud changed into a splendid scarlet bloom—rich-coloured, heavy-scented, beyond anything she had ever seen or imagined, and straightway deciding what gift it should bring her, pinned it on her heart to give her courage for the asking, ECORMMICMOOOKS Ee) im