The Argosy — page 221: what you’re looking at

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

204 A FREE-WILL OFFERING. By ELLA EDERSHEIM. I. M AJOR BROWN lay stretched out in the long basket-chair in the smoking-room of Sea View Villa. A small fox-terrier slept, curled up into a firm ball, on the rug. The Major’s feet were placed at exactly the correct angle for securing the proper amount of warmth from the fire. An open novel lay across his knee, and the fragrance of most excellent tobacco rose from his pipe. Yet in spite of these comfortable surroundings his face was sombre and his brow heavy, and every now and then he sighed a little, and made an uneasy movement. It was exactly six weeks since Major Brown had touched his native shores after an eight years’ sojourn in India. He had arrived in excellent spirits. He felt that he fully deserved his furlough. Then it was delightful to be in Old England again ; he would be able to improve his health, impaired by hot climates and fever; he would see old friends, visit old haunts, and above all renew that intercourse with Miss Nettie Drayton which had made life so bright to him eight years before. Sweet Nettie Drayton, the Rector’s daughter, whom he had found buried in a forgotten village! Broken visions of that time were passing before him now, and he seemed to see himself once more the gay young fellow who had wooed and won her. ‘They two were together beside the quiet river under the shadow of the great chestnut trees, and he was teaching Nettie how to fish. The lowing of the cattle was in his ears ; he felt the scent of the new cut grass and saw the waving of the meadow-sweet on the further bank and the tall reeds that grew at their feet. How young and fair and tender the girl looked in her simple white frock and broad hat! How strong and proud he felt as he watched her and knew that she loved him, and vowed to her that nothing, nor time, nor distance, nor fresh and fairer faces could move him in his love for her. And then came the parting, the bitterness of which had been broken by the assurance that, in a few years at most, they would meet again, and that then there would be no more partings between them, but that their lives would flow on together, quietly and blissfully as the peaceful river at their feet. Major Brown shifted uneasily in his chair, and the fox-terrier raised his head, yawned, and then relapsed again into slumber. How was it that impressions faded so quickly, or was it the fault of his own character? It seemed to him now that the first splash of the salt waves against the sides of the ship that bore him away from Gomicbooks.,com