The Argosy — page 253: what you’re looking at

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

236 The Missing Rubies. in this kind of talk. I have arranged all my household matters, and if you are willing, we will start at once for the Royal Academy.” ““Oh, I’m so glad we are to go there!” Beatrice gave a sigh of infinite satisfaction, and then turned to leave the room and ran lightly upstairs. A jaded young lady, chancing to open her door, looked rather enviously at the fresh face as it flitted past, and thought that the girlin black must certainly be new to the fashionable world. Meanwhile, the girl in black had speedily gained her own room, and was arranging her simple dress, putting on her little bonnet and smoothing the wavy gold of her hair with that natural contentment which comes to a pretty girl at a looking-glass. The bonnet was new, and she was wearing it for the first time. It had been chosen by Mrs. Milton, and had waited in the wardrobe for her arrival. Beatrice fastened the black bow under her dimpled chin, and told herself that she decidedly approved of Harriet’s choice. Truly, there is nothing like black for setting off a cream-tinted skin and bright hair ; and Miss Ward went downstairs again with the happy consciousness of looking her very best. “You have improved, Beatrice,” said Mrs. Milton, with grave decision. ‘‘Yes, you have improved very much. As a child you were a little sallow, but I never despaired of you, even at your worst. Besides, I know that pink-and-white complexions are seldom to be depended upon, and I always hoped that you would take the ivory tinge. Really, Iam very much pleased with you.” They went out together into the sunlight, and before they had gone many yards, Beatrice had forgotten her new bonnet, and ‘even her improved complexion, and was wondering whether Mr. Earle might chance to stroll into Burlington House. She listened absently to her companion’s talk, and saw Godwin in every well-dressed man who crossed her path. How had he begun this bright new day? Would the old despair seize him once more in its cruel grasp? She felt that her heart could never be quite at rest until she had met him again, face to face, and assured herself that he was reconciled to the common lot of humanity. But when she found herself among the pictures, her eyes and mind were so fully occupied that she ceased to watch for Godwin Earle. With all her heart, and in her own simple fashion, she thoroughly enjoyed the show, and gazed her fill, regardless of the sneers of amateur critics: often just enough, perhaps, but ill-timed and not too well expressed. Mrs. Milton was a capital guide, pointing out the most noteworthy works unobtrusively, and lingering as long as her pupil pleased over anything that struck her fancy. The rooms were very full, but the hour was early still, and the great rush and crush would come later on. Beatrice had paused, spell-bound, before a certain picture, hung on the line ; and her companion watched her face as she stood and looked, her soul in her deep-blue eyes, a slight colour tinging her (E(@) m ° CORNICE OOOKS