The Argosy — page 274: what you’re looking at

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

The Story of Charles Strange. 251 ‘What is it that you want here?” interrupted the servant girl, ad- yancing again, and addressing the visitor in a not very conciliatory tone. “Tam Lady Level,” was the reply, in a ringing, imperious voice. ‘‘ Call someone to receive me.” | It found its way to the girl’s alarm. She looked scared, doubting, and finally turned and flew off down a long, dark passage. The boy heard the announcement without its ruffling his equanimity in the least degree. “That’s all, ain’t it?” asked he, giving the bag a condescending toucn with his foot. “ How much am I to pay you?” inquired Lady Level. The boy paused. ‘‘ You bain’t obliged to pay nothing.” ‘“ What is the chargé ?” repeated Lady Level. “The charge ain’t nothing. If folks likes to give anything, it’s gived as a gift.” She smiled, and taking out her purse, gave him half-a-crown. He received it with remarkable satisfaction, and then, with an air of great mystery and cunning, slipped it into his boot. “ But, I say, don’t you go and tell, over there, as you gived it me,” said he, jerking his head in the direction of the railway station. ‘‘ We are not let take nothing, and there’d be the whole lot of ’em about my ears. You won't tell?” ‘No, I will not tell,” replied Lady Level, laughing, in spite of her cares and annoyances. And the promising young porter in embryo, giving vent to a shrill whistle, which might have been heard at the two-mile-off station, tore away as fast as his legs would carry him. The girl came back with a quaint old lady. Her hair was white, her complexion clear and fresh, and her eyes were black and piercing as ever they had been in her youth. She looked in doubt at the visitor, as the servant had done. * T am told that someone is inquiring for my lord.” His wife is inquiring for him. Iam Lady Level.” Had any doubt been wavering in the old lady’s mind, the tones dis- pelled it. She curtseyed to the ground: the stately, upright old- fashioned curtsey of the days gone by. A look of distress rose to her face. | “Oh, my lady! That I should live to receive my lord’s wife in this unprepared, unceremonious manner! He told me you were in foreign parts, beyond seas.” ‘“‘T returned to England yesterday, and have left my servants in town. What is the matter with Lord Level ?” “That your ladyship should come to such a house as this, ali un- furnished and disordered! and——I beg your pardon, my lady! I cannot take you through these passages,” she added, curtseying for Lady Level to go out again. ‘ Deborah, go round and open the front door.” COMICMOOOKS.Cc© mn