The Argosy — page 195: what you’re looking at

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

| 178 The Village Blacksmith. she liked it, and she began to wish with all her heart that her father had not left her at home that morning. Suppose what Mrs. Ryot- Tempest had said at breakfast was no vain threat. Suppose Mark Brown should summon her ; suppose he should do so in her father’s absence P | Her ideas as to what would happen in this last event were exceed- | ingly vague; but unpleasant visions of policemen and handcuffs, | warrants and gaols, floated through her mind as she sat gazing out | on the lovely view from the window, when suddenly the door opened | and Mrs. Ryot-Tempest walked into the room. | Her mission was to direct Vera’s course by means of persuasion ; | that silken power which Plato defines as ‘the helm of the soul.” Vera, however, was a delicate craft, difficult to navigate. She did not always choose to answer to her helm, particularly if her step- mother’s hand were upon it, but preferred to steer her own course; and Mrs. Ryot-Tempest feared she would prove unmanageable on this occasion. If Vera had been a man Mrs. Ryot-Tempest would | have been more hopeful of success, for then all the wiles she had it in her power to exercise would have told in her favour; but these arts were all lost on one of her own sex, and in Vera’s case would go against her. For these two women might be likened to the magnetic poles, at which two opposite energies, positive and negative, accumulate. They were charged with the opposite energies of truth and falsehood. In Vera truth was centred; in Mrs. Ryot-Tempest falsehood was accumulated. Now the electrical equilibrium between these two energies can, we know, be restored; but the moral equilibrium be- tween these women could never be adjusted; truth and falsehood can never flow in the same current any more than light and dark- ness can co-exist in the same place. ‘‘ Vera,” said Mrs. Ryot-Tempest, as Vera rose from the window- sill on which she had been lounging and stood facing her step-mother : ‘‘ Vera, I have come as a friend to help you in this trouble and to assure you that if you will do as your father and I desire I will see that no further steps are taken in this matter. I will make no effort to recover my diamonds, but for your sake I will sacrifice them, and in fact do my utmost to hush up the scandal.” As she spoke she sank gracefully on to a sofa, an action which irritated Vera even more than her words, for it seemed to assert her right to invade her step-daughter’s privacy. ‘‘ Mrs. Tempest,” replied Vera coldly, ‘‘my father has been obliged to leave me at home to- day, but before he went he desired me to avoid you; on his return he will no doubt discuss the robbery with you; meanwhile I can assure you neither he nor I desire or intend to hush it up, but I de- | cline to say anything more to you about it. If you remain here I | must leave the room.” | ‘Not until you hear what I have to say,” interrupted Mrs. Ryot- Gomicbooks.com