The Argosy — page 352: what you’re looking at

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

Lady Grace. — 329 Ryle, you are ill,” she faintly said. ‘‘ You have some disorder that you are concealing from me. Why do you keep me in suspense ?” * Tll in mind, Grace. Oh, my wife, how shall I tell you that I have been an embarrassed man for years, and that now the blow has fallen.” She shivered inwardly, but would not let it be seen. ‘‘ What is the blow ?” ‘‘T am arrested. I must go to prison to-morrow morning.” So little was Lady Grace familiar with “ arrests” and ‘“ prisons,” that she could not at once comprehend him; and when she did so, the popular belief seemed to be in her mind that a Dean, so enshrined in divinity and dignity, could never be made an inmate of a prison. The first emotion passed, they sat down close together on the sofa, and Grace poured forth question upon question. What had brought iton? How much did they owe? Why didn’t he tell the lawyers to settle it? Puzzling questions, all, for the Dean to answer. It had been coming on too long for him to be able to trace “‘ what” had brought it on, except that they had lived at too great an expense. Little by little, step by step, the grain of sand had grown to a desert. How much they owed he could not precisely say ; and oh! the mockery of the innocent remark: ‘“‘ Why didn’t he tell the lawyers to settle it ? ” “Ryle!” she suddenly exclaimed, ‘‘ you had an advance from the bankers a day or two ago. I saw you drawa cheque for two hundred and twenty pounds—don’t you remember? I came in as you were writing it. Is that all gone?” “Tt was the last cheque they cashed—the last they would cash. The money was not for myself.” ‘For whom, then ?” “That is of no importance. It is gone.” “But you must tell me. You know, Ryle, now that it has come to this pass, you must not keep me in the dark. I must know how much you owe, and how the money has gone, and the right and the wrong of everything. Of course, there’s nothing to be done now but to get Henry to help us; and if he won’t, or can’t do so, we must raise money upon my property. What did that two hundred and twenty pounds go in?” ‘* Arrests seem to be running in the family just now,” observed the Dean, with a bitter smile. ‘‘ Cyras—Cyras—well, I had to give that cheque to Cyras to get rid of a little trouble. It was not much, Grace; as a drop of water to the ocean.” Whether as a drop, or a bucket, it seemed to freeze Lady Grace. ‘* Cyras !” she ejaculated, scornfully. ‘‘ What zzgft have you to help him when you cannot afford to do it? I shall tell Cyras what I think of his despicable conduct.” “Don’t do that, Grace. The trouble was not Cyras’s. He has not had a shilling from me.” COM ) VOO|kKS.CO