The Argosy — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

—.- The House of Halliwell. 93 “Shall I do for a clergyman, think you? Shall I read and preach well enough for them ?” He knew he would, there was conscious triumph in his voice as he spoke ; what need for Hester to give him her assurance? Yet she tried to speak a timid word of congratulation. He clasped her closer to him, he held her hand with a deeper pressure, he halted in the narrow path, and, raising her face to his, kissed it lovingly. ‘‘ Oh, Hester, my dearest, how happy we are in each other!” he murmured; ‘how bright will be our future!” Mrs. Halliwell called to them. Perhaps she missed the echo of their footsteps; perhaps she thought they were lingering too far behind. ‘Mr. Archer, are you and Hester not walking slowly? It is very cold.” So he raised his face from hers, and they went on close to Mrs. Halliwell and Lucy. ‘““Oh!” cried poor Hester once, after the lapse of many years, “ let me believe that he did indeed love me! Iam an old woman now, and have struggled through a lonely life, carrying with me a bruised heart. But let me believe that my dream was real; that during its brief lasting, George Archer’s love for me was pure and true.” Alfred Halliwell fell ill in June. He had been ailing ever since he went down to Wales. ‘The weather, when he travelled, was severe, the place bleak, and he wrote word home that the cold seemed, from the first, to have struck on his chest and settled there. In June he grew worse, and wanted his mother to go down. ‘““T shall send you instead, Hester,” said Mrs. Halliwell, after pondering over his letter. The hot colour flushed into Hester’s face, and she looked up to remonstrate. What! send her away from Seaford, miles and miles, where she could never see Azm, hear his voice, or listen for his step ! But a better feeling came over her, and the hasty words died away upon her lips: how could she refuse to comfort her sick brother ? “Hester is thinking of Mr. Archer,” laughed Lucy. ‘“ Now, Hester, don’t deny it; I can see it in your face. Look at it, mamma. She is indignant that anyone should be so unfeeling as to banish her from Seaford.” ‘“‘ Hester must remember that she is, in a remote degree, the cause of this illness of Alfred’s. Had he been curate here his indisposition would have been well attended to at first, and not suffered to get ahead.” Mrs. Halliwell’s tone was mild, but Hester’s conscience smote her. Lucy saw her downcast look. “Mamma,” she said, ‘‘ let me go to Alfred instead of Hester.” Mrs. Halliwell shook her head. “It is not only that Hester 1s three years older than you, Lucy, but she has a steadiness of character and manner which you want. I can trust her to travel alone ; you _ are too giddy.” “ Why, you know we always said that Hester was cut out. for al old oOvlnn 0)(0)(0) SS) (C(O) im =)