The Argosy — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

78 Myr. Gordon: Spectalist. pleasantly discussing nothings: the discomforts and inconveniences of travelling in Switzerland in summer, the hospitable comfort of the Bar, the beauty of the surrounding country. Virginia had gathered that her friend was enjoying a short summer holiday, snatched from amongst his professional duties; that these were carried on in London ; nothing more. They sat down on a bench. Mrs. Farringdon Griffiths had dis- appeared, but Virginia knew her mother well enough to discern that this was part of a plan which she must in nowise thwart by follow- ing her indoors. The stranger was relating anecdotes of his boyhood, to which Virginia was giving a gentle appreciative attention. His cigar had gone out, but he had forgotten to relight it. He sat leaning for- ward on the bench, slightly turned to face Virginia, waving the cigar- stump as a happy means of gesticulation. ‘The Miss Harpers passed in boisterous conversation with a raw youth, but Virginia was too much absorbed to heed them. ‘‘T assure you,” the stranger was saying, ‘‘ that it was this circum- stance—” he was referring to the deafness of an old nurse—‘ that first turned my attention to the diseases of the human body.” ‘* A doctor!” she exclaimed rapturously to herself. ‘‘ How clever mamma is! She never makes a mistake.” “And, Miss Farringdon Griffiths,” he pursued. There was a certain well-bredness, Virginia thought, in his distinct and slow enunciation of the two names with which her mother had encumbered them. ‘‘ There is something I should like to say to you, if you won’t mind. I have noticed that your mother is a little deaf.” Virginia started and paled. Was it possible that this, the only sign of approaching age that Mrs. Farringdon Griffiths exhibited ; a sign which she herself apparently had not noticed; a sign which Virginia had strenuously striven to hide even from her own obser- vation, calling herself coarse and unfeeling in noticing what was, after all, such a very slight defect; was it possible that this had been remarked almost immediately by a stranger, who had had scarcely any opportunity for judging? It amounted surely to divination! Her breath seemed to leave her, and she could not speak. The stranger continued as though he did not notice her distress. ‘But I have very strong suspicions that her deafness is intimately connected with my specialty. You must know that in my own line I think I may venture to call myself a discoverer. And I have known and remedied similar cases. Now just you take my advice. Next time you are in London come and see me. _ I will put her all right for you. And it will give me real pleasure to see you again and to renew our pleasant acquaintanceship. I can’t tell you how happy you've made my Sunday. I little thought when I came up from Interlaken last evening what there was in store for me. It is a matter of the deepest regret to me that I am obliged to start for England COMICMOOOKS. CON