The Argosy — page 323: what you’re looking at

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302 “ Glittering Gold.” ‘“ Have I seemed so very unhappy here, then ?” “By no means. You have 4 “Come here, Nellie,” interrupts Olive just at that moment. “JI want you to tell me what you think of these heads.” Miss Nellie looks just the least bit in the world annoyed, but does as she is bid. ‘What spite are you nourishing against Mr. Etheridge, I wonder, Olive? You have certainly not flattered my unfortunate face ; but to him you have been simply merciless.” “Do you think so?” asks the gentleman under discussion, mascu- line vanity and curiosity having conquered his natural shyness and drawn him irresistibly to the sketch. ‘‘To me, now, the likeness seems very good.” “You must be modest, indeed, if that is really your opinion,” says his late opponent, not without some little significance. ‘“T drew Mr. Etheridge as I saw him.” Olive’s tones are quiet and even as ever. “Then decidedly we see with different eyes.” The words are spoken almost in a whisper, but they do not fail to reach Mr. Etheridge’s sharp ears. For three whole days the trio had now been shut up together in the little inn—a length of time probably equal to at least three years of ‘society ” intercourse—and for one, at any rate, of the three, it was a new and fateful experience. Bereaved of every accustomed occupation, cut off from ledgers and balance-sheets, deprived of mailbags and telegrams, destitute of newspapers and financial columns, Robert Etheridge found himself for the first time in his life forced into intimate relations with two young and attractive ladies. Of Olive and her stately beauty the prudent business man from the first entertained a most wholesome awe, not to say an actual dread. Beauties, he had always heard, were “‘kittle cattle to shoe behind,” and confused recollections of Delilah, Jezebel, Cleopatra, Medea and the Sirens rose warningly to mind whenever he caught his eyes rest- ing with pleasure on Olive’s perfect features and graceful form. It was with a sense of positive relief that Mr. Etheridge turned to plain, homely little Miss Nellie. Here, at any rate, was no radiant beauty to dazzle his eyes and confound his judgment ; here he might safely venture to accept the overtures of friendship so frankly and simply offered him. In his enforced idleness and seclusion her good- natured efforts to relieve the tedium of the long slow hours soon made him feel more at home with Miss Nellie than with three-fourths of the men of his acquaintance. This much Mr. Etheridge confessed to himself very early in the course of their imprisonment ; yet even as he did so, he heaved a regretful sigh to the memory of the absent ledgers. But by the time the third day drew to its close, Robert had grown GEomichbooks.co