The Argosy — page 328: what you’re looking at

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

“Glittering Gold.” 307 ears. Was it possible that for Azs sake the stately, quiet beauty had so roused herself ? ‘That it was zs cause she had pleaded so fervidly in the quiet night hours? With what kindly warmth she had spoken ‘of him! While he in his heart had been blindly unjust and un- generous towards her. He had misjudged her cruelly, imputing to her the meanest of a woman’s faults, and this was how she repaid him. ‘Truly, all that glitters is not gold, but Mr. Etheridge confessed to himself there and then that he had forgotten the converse was equally true. Glittering gold, as well as its counterfeit, does exist in this world after all. Next morning, to the surprise of the sisters, Mr. Etheridge ap- peared at the breakfast-table as usual; looking very much himself, too ; for it takes more than one restless night to leave any visible print on the face of aman. ‘Towards Miss Nellie his manner was quietly cool and indifferent, but to her sister he showed a new and gentle deference for which Olive was wholly unprepared. That day the three travellers together descended the steep, zig-zag path hewn out of the face of the almost perpendicular rock, arriving safely, after a somewhat exciting descent, at the quaint little town of Leukerbad, a place which exists just to bathe and be bathed. Mr. Etheridge secured rooms for himself in a different hotel from the sisters, but contrived nevertheless to pass in their society the greater part of the week he spent at Leukerbad. ‘Together the little party visited the famous baths where ladies and gentlemen _ stew in company in the hot mineral water, chattering, chess-playing, reading, coffee-drinking, apparently quite at ease, though only their heads and hands are to be seen above the water. ‘Together too they walked in the pleasant avenues where the bathers congregate during the limited portion of their day not devoted to the serious business of soaking. It was comical to recognise in the Parisian belles and their elegant cavaliers the faces they had last seen emerging from the waters like so many Ararats above a universal deluge. Although Robert Etheridge thus lingered in her society, it was quite useless for Nellie Branscombe to try and persuade herself that any hope of future relenting on her part caused the delay. Always courteous and considerate for her comfort, Mr. Etheridge showed a quiet indifference to her liveliest sallies and brightest smiles, which _Mortified that young lady’s vanity more keenly than the bitterest _ Teproaches could have done. It was to Olive that Robert now turned for companionship ; nor _ did he strive to win her confidence in vain. Under her dignified _ and reserved demeanour he soon discovered depths of feeling and a wealth of thought compared with which Nellie’s ready show of _ Sympathy was hollowness itself. Certainly he did not find in her | any easy flattery of his own weak points, or special interest in him- Self and his own peculiarities, and there were many outworks of GomiilGcaooks im