The Argosy — page 347: what you’re looking at

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

328 Between the Songs. certain of it. ‘There would be a young Mrs. Cockle now, that would be the only atom of difference. Oh, how droll, how odd it was! and look at the boys’ hats hanging there in the hall—swinging a little in the draught. ‘They might have belonged to her own brothers. There was evidently nobody in the house. She moved a step or two farther into the hall, and finding a door to the left a little ajar, pushed it open. Yes, the room was precisely the same. Her father had been the principal doctor in Ayleshaven, and it was doubtless just as she had begun to. suspect, that his successors had taken over the house and furniture, at a valuation, along with the practice. She turned away with a quick little sigh, and then hastily looked back, a different expression on her face. Yonder was the table where Oliver, her youngest brother, always kept his canary in its cage. Yes, there was the same cage, covered up with a red cloth just as Oliver always used to cover it. Doubtless there was a little canary inside, sleeping. At the top of the first flight of stairs was the dining-room. The door of that stood wide open (when was it ever shut?) with the brilliant moonlight flooding through the windows. ‘Tea had only been partially cleared away. There was the remains of what looked like a hurried meal—as if somebody had been out all day, and had rushed in just for a mouthful before dressing for the concert: leaving behind them a very strongly-scented little pink envelope—of a letter evidently torn open, and probably thrust into the pocket ; and at the other end, beside the cold beef, an uncut sporting newspaper. Well— she almost laughed. That was all so like her eldest brother, Reuben. | Along the passage to the left from the dining-room, was a little room known as the ante-room. ‘The drawing-room opened beyond. Here, too, was everything as she remembered it. ‘There was the old brown couch that Geoffrey used to be so fond of reading on; there was the cabinet her grandfather brought home from Japan. ‘There was the high bookcase full of scientific and physiological works—. with the key left sticking in the lock, just as Geoffrey might have left. it. It was the only thing that used to be capable of angering her father with Geoffrey—his prime favourite. And now where was Geoffrey? He had been a quiet studious. lad—her senior by eighteen months—twenty years ago. She had had no direct communication with any of her family during that twenty years; but somehow or other, by this means or that means, she had learned this :—That Geoffrey had broken his father’s heart— and yet this same father had seen her, a girl of eighteen, walk out of this ante-room, in all human possibility for ever, without a quiver of an eye-lid. How he must have loved Geoffrey ! Beyond the ante-room lay the drawing-room. She passed into that almost timidly—having half an inclination to close her eyes, as, she had done whilst crossing the common. (Quaint and dreamy— COMIC OOOKS.CO©