The Argosy — page 381: what you’re looking at

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

358 A Love Story. business to attend to, which would take him away for a short while, he would send his wife up to amuse me during the interval. Till now I had seen no one but himself, the doctor and the nurse, and I began to wonder whether my surmise would prove correct that in his wife I should find my partner of the - penultimate dance at that Woolwich ball. My doubts—if I really had any—were soon set at rest, for in a few minutes there was a sound of light footsteps on the stairs, a rustle of a dress on the landing, a gentle tap at the door, and in walked the identical lady closely followed by her dark-eyed cousin. ‘“T knew I was right,” said she, to her cousin ; echoing, as it were, my own thoughts. Then, coming over to where I sat propped up in my big chair, they both of them commiserated with me on my forlorn condition, regretted the accident which had laid me low, and expressed them- selves so sweetly concerned about my recovery that I began to think my lot was not so very bad after all. There are many things that are better than the proverbial poke in the eye with a window shutter, and this was one of them. They went on chatting and trying to amuse me with such success that an hour was gone in no time, and [I felt myself progressing rapidly under their treatment. We talked, of course, about the circumstances of our previous meeting, and I was hypocritical enough to try to lead them to believe that my sole object in seeking the introduction was to get driven home that night. But the dark eyes looked somewhat incredulous. At last I said to the fair one: ‘* What was it you were right about when you came into the room P” “ About you,” she replied, archly. ‘* All Annie and I could learn was that you were @ Mr. Talboys, and we used to wonder whether you were the same Mr. Talboys who came back with us from that ball. Annie said ‘No,’ and I said ‘ Yes.” And I was right, you see,” added she, with a smile of satisfaction. A masculine step was now heard on the stairs, and the husband appeared. “‘T hope these prattlers. have not been wearying you, Talboys,” said he. ‘‘I must turn them out now, in any case, for the doctor will be here in a minute.” The black eyes and the blue both looked at me very pleasantly as they said: ‘‘ Good-bye, for the present; we shall come and see you again to-morrow.” But it was the blue eyes which struck me as being the most bewitching, and there was a depth of tenderness in them which made me think to myself: ‘‘ What a lucky fellow your husband is.” This was the last I saw of them, however, for a long time. That very afternoon they were both summoned to the bedside of their grandmother, who had been suddenly seized with a paralytic stroke, CONNIELOOKS, EC) an