The Argosy — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

The Village Blacksnuth. 107 for mental stimulants. Alas! for us both, it has pleased God to de- prive us of these things; but He has ‘tempered the wind to the shorn lamb,’ and left us the inestimable boon of friendship.” And here Mrs. Jamieson made a feint of drying her fine eyes with a deep black-bordered handkerchief. She didn’t explain who was the lamb to whom the wind had been tempered. Whether she or Mr. Ryot Tempest, or both, represented that much-quoted animal was left for him to decide. But though her simile might have been far- fetched, she was conscious that her last speech had been a telling one; for when Mr. Tempest took his leave, he pressed her hand in both of his in the most friendly, not to say affectionate, fashion. ‘Come and see me again soon; you have done me so much good. I was feeling very sad when you arrived, and I shall look forward anxiously to another talk.” These were her parting words, to which Mr. Ryot Tempest warmly responded. A fortnight later Mr. Ryot Tempest paid another visit to Mrs. Jamieson, during which it transpired that she would always be at home to him on Saturday afternoons: and from that time it became a habit with him to ride over and spend an hour or two every Saturday afternoon with this handsome widow. He never asked Vera to accompany him, nor did he think it necessary to tell her where he went; and not being curious or suspicious, it never occurred to her to inquire. Indeed, as the autumn advanced, Vera’s mind was much occupied in anticipating Captain Raleigh’s promised visit ; added to which she was much interested in Janet, of whose trouble with regard to Mark Brown she had been accidentally made aware. Mark had never been a favourite of Vera’s, and when they returned from Avranches, it struck her that he was by no means improved. ‘The other servants complained to her that his temper, never good, was now almost unbearable ; and he had grown so slovenly in his work and appearance that at last Vera called her father’s attention to it. Now, in Mr. Tempest’s eyes, Mark was a paragon of perfection, who could hardly do wrong, so the result of Vera’s complaint was to bring on a fit of domestic energy called by the servants “the fidgets,” to which Mr. Ryot Tempest was periodically liable. On these occasions he ransacked the house from attic to basement to the distraction of the women-servants ; instituting a general sweeping and dusting and burning of rubbish, and having no visible effect beyond making everyone in the house from himself downwards cross and uncom- fortable. On the present occasion he was so far impressed with the reason- ableness of Vera’s complaint that, having inaugurated a house-cleaning at home, he set Mark to turn out a loft over the coach-house, in which all kinds of rubbish had been thrown, and to ensure its being done thoroughly, he superintended it himself. COnniclboooks (CO) im