The Argosy — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

240 Straight from the Plain. which the smaller things were standing. She had said the words aloud, as people sometimes do when alone and in surprise, and she was touching an object gently here and there. “T don’t see it yet; yet it is sure to be here—Lot’s wife.” “Ves, Anna, it is sure to be there—Lot’s wife. I should not fail to bring fiat for you.” As the well-known voice fell on her ear, the well-known form advanced to gladden her sight. Anna gave a startled cry. Just at first she thought it must be a vision, and she backed a few steps and held up her hands. ‘* My dear, don’t you know me?” She knew him now, and burst into tears. Very mixed tears indeed they were, springing partly from over-wrought astonishment, from dismay, and from a blissful pulsation which was stirring her veins. What, zat must he think of her, intruding thus into the private rooms of his home, avowedly looking for Lot’s wife ? ‘T hope you will forgive me; I don’t know how to excuse myself,” she murmured in shame-faced contrition, after they had shaken hands; and he stood looking down at her with a smile, enjoying her confu- sion, his tall fine form drawn to its full height. ‘‘T heard you were coming home to-morrow night.” “No doubt! everyone else here heard so,” he replied. “ All the fault of good Mrs. Parker. I wrote yesterday from London, and said ‘expect me /o-morrow evening.’ She is-still in the depths of woe and consternation, laying the blame upon her spectacles, which ‘read the sense of the words wrong.’ Is your father well, Anna P— my dear old friend and tutor.” ‘ Quite well, thank you. He is dining with Dr. Reeves.” Her voice was unsteady, her hands were trembling. ‘© And so you came up to look for Lot’s wife.” ‘‘Oh, please, please forgive me! Please forgive and forget. I will never come up again. It was all through Lily Sandford. She was here with her uncle to-day, and she told me she had seen all the beautiful things which had come and—and—Lot’s wife. I thought it no harm to come and look at them too. It was very foolish of me.” “Very,” gravely replied Mr. Brooke. ‘‘ This is she, Lot’s wife,” he added, pointing out a figure in which Anna could just now see neither form nor shape. ‘I brought her, as you bade me, straight from the Plain. I have brought her home for my wife, Anna, and I hope she will always treasure her. Do you think she will ?” ‘‘T do not know,” she answered faintly. ‘Oh, but you do,” he returned. ‘‘ My darling,”—passing his arm round her—‘ you cannot have failed to understand that it was to my own future wife I promised to bring Lot’s wife. Will she accept her ?” he fondly whispered. But Anna could not answer; her eyes were raining down tears of salt. CONNIE KS. (EC) m