The Argosy — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

40 The Results of a Hunt Week. The hands that gripped the arms of his chair had fury in their touch. ‘They shall be baulked,” he said, “the false dissemblers. They shall see me unaltered by one sign when I go among them, and for the rest they get no more invitations here. As for Knight’s pride, it shall be humbled in the dust—in the mire before me. [I'll get him a Deanery, and he shall know it is to me he is beholden for it. If ever arrogance and treachery deserved a fall, his do; arrogance alone, perhaps, for the knave spoke truth when he said he had warned me what would happen. But his insufferable pride will wince under an obligation, and he shall eat the dust under my feet. Heaven forgive and pity me, for I am a very miserable and erring man.” How the one sentence attached itself to others so unlike might have puzzled a bystander, but the language of his face echoed the last words alone. Still as a stone he sat, with that stricken look, gazing at the gathering dusk settling down chill and mournful on the dreary scene without. Then the door opened. He had noticed no bell or bustle of arrival in the distant hall, and looked up in amazement now, for Mrs. Prideaux-Power entered at the door. ‘‘Oh, don’t be angry with me; please don’t,” she was saying, as she advanced, leaving him no room to wedge in a word. ‘‘I am so very, very sorry to hear this wretched news. Directly they told me, I felt I must come to you at once. We have been at loggerheads some- times, you and I (no, don’t speak), and I have chaffed you shamefully and all that, and you were very wrong to keep her so strict—very ; but oh, nobody in the world is so sorry for you now as I!” What is there in truth, that at a word it wins its way against prejudice and proof? What in warmth of heart, that suspicion and anger fly at its approach? Mr. Seaton grew white to the lips. ‘She had no right to do it; none,” went on the guest. “ You would have relented if she had only given you time—you know you would ; for there is nothing against Rick Pontifex now, and though it was hard on her, she would have been none the worse for waiting a little longer.” Mr. Seaton gave another convulsive grip to the chair he stood by. “God bless you,” he said, ‘‘for the only one who has spoken the truth about me yet. I would have relented if they had gone on persisting. It was my duty to prove what his steadiness was worth, and I had other hopes for her. But I would have relented; I would —only it was too hard on the poor child, and she will never know it now.” “Not know it!” said Mrs. Prideaux-Power, bursting into tears. ‘What is to prevent her knowing it, as long as I have a tongue to tell her? and I cannot bear to hear you making excuses for her! She has behaved shamefully to you, I think.” ‘* Don’t agitate yourself; pray don’t,” said Mr, Seaton. ‘‘ Then you had nothing to do with this ?” COMIC OOOKS.€O)