The Argosy — page 282: what you’re looking at

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

_— ll — r Eee ——————————e7~~ A Lady’s Privilege. 263 would inevitably, according to custom, devote the rest of the morning to what she called her household duties. As for Mrs. Beresford and Ethel, they had arranged to join the shooters at an improvised pic-nic in the woods, and were to inspect the newly-opened school-room in the village on their way thither. Nothing material occurred to upset Jack’s calculations ; and as he had anticipated, before twelve o’clock had struck the coast was clear. As the eventful moment which was to decide his fate drew nigh, his nervous embarrassment increased in so painful a degree that when at length he found himself ¢é¢e-a-/éfe with Miss Courtenay, ostensibly occupied with a piece of intricate embroidery, he could not for the life of him hit upon a more appropriate “ entrée en matiere” than that it was a fine day for the time of year. “Very,” gravely replied the young lady; and a pause ensued, which might have lasted indefinitely had not Sybil, with a smile half- compassionate, half-mischievous, suddenly broken new ground by asking her bewildered admirer if he ever studied the almanac. “The almanac!” he stammered, utterly taken aback by the ques- tion; “no, I can’t say I do.” “'That’s a pity,” she observed; ‘‘a great deal of interesting infor- mation may be found there. For instance € The idea that she was amusing herself at his expense at once restored Trevor’s self-possession. “T didn’t come here to talk about almanacs,” he interrupted her, in a slightly reproachful tone, “‘ but to solicit—presumptuously perhaps —a boon more precious to me than anything the world could offer. Sybil, dearest Sybil,” he continued, in a voice trembling with sup- pressed emotion, and tenderly clasping her unresisting hand, “ will you be my wife ?” “T will, John,” she replied frankly; ‘‘and you might have known it long ago if you had asked me. As it is, you have spared me a delicate task. According to the almanac—-—” ‘Bother the almanac,” cried Jack, impatiently ; ‘‘ what can it have to do with us ?” “More than you imagine. If you had studied it attentively you might have discovered that in this year of grace ‘ February’s days are twenty-nine,’ and therefore———” “T see!” exclaimed her lover in a transport of delight, pressing the little hand he held closer to his heart. “Let me finish,” persisted Sybil, with a most becoming blush. “And, therefore, when a gentleman won’t speak out, it is, we are told, permissible for a lady—in certain exceptional cases, of course—to avail herself of an incontestable privilege of her sex—the privilege of "Leap Year !’” CHARLES HERVEY. GOMmicdoo SS) Co mM