The Argosy — page 206: what you’re looking at

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

The House of Halliwell. 187 hope not for the last time, be reasonable, be kind,” said Mr. Elliot, trying Azs powers of persuasion. But, effectual as they had hitherto proved with the young lady, they failed now. “What I can do to oppose your views on my sister, I will do,” she vehemently answered. ‘‘ You have played a traitor’s part, Mr. Elliot, in seeking her affections. I beg you to leave the house at once, and you will never be admitted to it again.” “But, Clara,” he remonstrated, ‘‘ you % “T have told you to leave the house,” she reiterated, pale with anger. “If you do not quit it this instant, 1 shall ring for the servants to show you out.” “Very well, Miss Freer,” he said, all his customary equanimity returning to him. ‘Louisa, my darling,” he impressively added, turning to her for a last farewell, “‘ we may be obliged to bend to circumstances, and temporarily separate; but remember—come what may, I will be true to you. Be you so to me. Will you promise ?” “T will,” she whispered, and Mr. Tom Elliot bent down, and sealed it on her lips, regardless of Miss Clara’s energetic appeal to the bell. Clara Freer made her own tale good to her father, and Thomas made his good to Mrs. Agatha. For, in the violent indignation of the attorney, he had informed that lady of her nephew’s having presumed to make love to his daughter, and Mrs. Agatha, over- whelmed with the first shock of the news, wrote off an imperative summons to Tom’s father, telling him to post to Nearford upon a matter of life and death, which summons brought the alarmed parent flying at express speed. Everybody who heard of the affair pronounced them both a couple of simpletons. A medical pupil, of twenty-one, without any definite hopes or money whatever, to have talked of marriage, was ridiculous ; and for a young lady, wth money and prospects, to have listened to him, was more ridiculous still. The clergyman, when he arrived and found what the matter was, wished to treat it as a joke; the lawyer was too outrageous to treat it in any way but in earnest ; while Tom strove to deny it to Mrs. Agatha. “There’s nothing in it, dear aunt,” he pleaded. ‘‘ Don’t you believe any of them.” ‘But Miss Freer affirms that she caught you kissing her sister,” persisted Mrs. Agatha. ‘‘ How do you account for that ?” “I’m sure I don’t know how it is to be accounted for,” answered Tom, demurely. ‘I believe I must have dropped asleep with my eyes open, and done it ina dream. I was sitting there, waiting for the lawyer to come in, and had got tired to death.” | Mrs. Agatha was staggered. She had not much faith in those sort of dreams, but she had great faith in Tom’s word. * Kissing is very bad, Thomas,” she observed, doubtingly. CORINELMO© SS) (S©) mM