The Argosy — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

Divided. IOI wet sands. Against the amber sky rose the tower of the Chateau, picturesque and fairy-like, its delicate battlements thrown into vivid black relief, upon a pale and gleaming background. Raoul could not repress his pleasure at being back again. ‘“ How glorious it is to be at home!” he exclaimed. “Look at the sea, Denise. I should like to see what Paris can show you to come up to this!” ‘Tt all depends on individual taste, does it not?” said Denise, quick to resent any implied disparagement of her native city. ‘‘ Paris is good enough for me, at all events.” She was thinking of the bare, stiff rooms of the Chateau; of the ghostly old four-post bed in her own room, with its dingy, unwhole- some curtains, and cold white walls; of the chimneys that smoked in a north-east wind; of the long uncarpeted corridors, where the draughts were so dreadful in winter. Raoul was not rich, but, until after his marriage, he had not con- sidered himself an absolutely poor man. He had more than enough for his own wants, which were moderate in the extreme. But when he brought Denise to Camper it struck him very forcibly that her surroundings were not worthy of so fair and precious a treasure ; and it is true that Denise, who had been brought up in the midst of what, compared with this, was luxury, thought it terribly comfortless and triste. The Chateau wanted at least 42,000 spent on it to make it thoroughly fit for its dainty little mistress; and unfortunately ready money was not easily obtained. The estate was encumbered with debts, contracted by the late Monsieur de Kériadec, an extravagant bon-vivant with an unfortunate predilection for the pleasures of Paris, who had squandered his money away from home, whilst his wife and son got on at Camper as best they could without him. When, at the age of twenty-one, Raoul succeeded to the dimi- mished property, he lost no time in beginning what had been his ambition since boyhood, viz.,an improvement in the condition of the poor people on the coast, amongst whom he had grown up almost like one of themselves. The hamlet of Camper was to be thoroughly renovated ; its present state was a scandal, though, as the inhabitants had never known a more prosperous lot, it had not occurred to them to grumble at it, or to force their grievances before public notice. But no sooner had Raoul begun his good work than grievance after grievance unfolded itself, and he soon learnt what a small area of misery and squalor his charity could cover. When he married he found that he was spending so much on other people that he could not afford to give his wife all the luxuries he would have liked. But, though he felt that there is some truth and much that is agreeable in the maxim, ‘‘ Let charity begin at home,” he was not one to relin- quish anything he had once undertaken. Until the fishermen possessed decent habitations, Denise must VOL. XLVIII. L* CORNICLOO® CS (SO) am