The Argosy — page 127: what you’re looking at

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

Eye The Village Blacksmith. ‘Mrs. Tempest,” said the Archdeacon, forgetting the Ryot for the first and only time in his life, as he moved towards Vera and put his hand on her shoulder: ‘‘ Mrs. Tempest, I will not suffer Vera to be insulted in this way. Vera, my dear, go to my study; I will follow you immediately.” ‘You have no time for heroics, Archdeacon; you have rather less than an hour before your train leaves. Jeemember this is your first visitation to-day ; you cannot plead your domestic troubles as an excuse for not fulfilling your duties,” said Mrs. Ryot-Tempest as Vera left the room. ‘‘T have no intention of neglecting them. Where is Mark Brown? I wish to see him before I go,” returned the Archdeacon coldly. ‘‘T fear your wish will not be gratified. He is gone to the doctor to have the bullet extracted from his arm, and in all robability will not be home until the middle of the day.” | This was not exactly true; Mark was gone to a neighbouring magistrate, with whom the Archdeacon was not on very good terms, to make a statement of what, according to him, had occurred the previous night, and to take out a summons against Vera for wounding him with intent to kill. It was possible he might pay the doctor a visit also, but that was not the primary motive he had for going out, as his mistress well knew. In fact he carried a letter of hers with him to the magistrate saying she feared Mark’s statement was only too true. ‘In that case I can do but little in the matter, beyond reporting the burglary to the police, until my return. I shall be home by four o'clock.” ‘Tf you take my advice you will make no report of any kind to the police, as I do not intend to prosecute anyone. The empty jewel-case has been found. It is possible the diamonds may turn up alsosome day. As I said last night, they are of very little consequence in comparison with Mark’s assault, of which you appear to take no cognizance. If we could only prevail upon him to act as I am act- ing we might avert the disgrace and trouble which hangs over our heads like a sword,” said Mrs. Ryot-Tempest, anxiously desiring to propitiate her husband and win him over to her opinion. “T fail to see that any disgrace threatens us,” said the Arch- deacon, who was much puzzled by his wife’s behaviour ; for he could not help acknowledging to himself that in spite of her unchristian conduct in suspecting and accusing Vera of such crimes, she was acting very magnanimously in refusing to prosecute her when she believed her guilty. He was also much surprised that she took so little trouble to recover her diamonds, and appeared to bear the loss so philosophically, for they were worth a small fortune. Now he disliked puzzles of any kind ; they irritated him ; perhaps for this reason he was not fond of women, for most women are enigmas, his wife a very complicated one. She piqued his curiosity Eomicbooks.co