The Argosy — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

208 Featherston’s Story. had the day we were about to look at the house with Mary Car- diac, and which you thought was through the darkness of the passage striking you unpleasantly ? Well, my opinion is that it must have given you a scare.” “ Why, of course it did.” ‘‘ Ah, but I mean a scare which lasts,” said Ann; ‘one of those scares which affect the mind and take very long to get rid of. You recollect poor Mrs. Hunt, at Buttermead. She was frightened at a violent thunderstorm, though she never had been before; and for years afterwards, whenever it thundered, she became so alarm- ingly ill and agitated that Mr. Featherston had to be run for. He called ita scare. I think the fear you felt that past day must have left that sort of scare upon you. Howelse can you account for what ~ you tell me?” | Truth to say, the same idea had more than once struck Lavinia, \s She knew how devoid of reason some of these “scares” are, andyet — how terribly they disturb the mind on which they fasten. 7 “But I had quite forgotten that fear, Ann,” she urged in reply. , ‘* We had lived in the house eighteen months when you went away, 1 | and I had never recalled it.” | ‘All the same, I think you received the scare; it had only lain — dormant,” persisted Ann. | “Well, well; you are back again now and it is over,” said Lavinia, ) “* Let us forget itt Do not speak of it again at all to anyone, - Nancy love.” iT’. WINTER that year had quite set in when Sainteville found itselfs honoured with rather a remarkable visitor ; one Signor Talcke, who | descended, one morning at the beginning of December, at the Hotel des Princes. Though he called himself “ Signor,” it seemed uncer- . tain to what country he owed his birth. He spoke five or six lan- guages as a native, including Hindustani. Signor Talcke was a, professor of occult sciences ; he was a great astronomer ; astrology he. had at his fingers’ ends. He was a powerful mesmerist ; he would foretell the events of your life by your hands, or your fortune by the | cards. | For a fee of twenty-five francs, he would attend an evening party, and exhibit some of his powers. Amidst others who engaged him) were the Miss Bosanquets, in the Rue Lamartine. A relative of theirs, Sir George Bosanquet, K.C.B., had come over with his wife, to spend Christmas with them. Sir George laughed at what he heard. | of Signor Talcke’s powers of reading the future, and said he should much like to witness a specimen of it. So Miss Bosanquet and her, sisters hastily arranged an evening entertainment, engaged the mys- tical man, and invited their friends and acquaintances, those of the little Maison Rouge included. Gomicsdooks.com