The Argosy, Vol. 67

About this issue

This March 1899 Argosy installment continues the serial novel "The Tower Gardens," presenting Chapter IX ("A Chance Acquaintance") and the beginning of Chapter X ("The Transition Period"). In Chapter IX, Arnold Birkett, recently returned to London from eight years on the West Coast of Africa, encounters businessman Tildesley at the Tavistock Hotel dining room. Through their conversation, Birkett reveals he survived numerous fevers in Africa and made money in the colonial trade. The men exchange cards and part cordially. That evening, Birkett examines portraits of people from his past—including a little girl—and decides he must visit John Harbuckle to learn the fate of someone named Jessie. He falls ill with African ague. Chapter X follows John Harbuckle's restlessness after a recent emotional upheaval. The narrative reveals that twenty-four years earlier, Harbuckle loved a delicate woman named Jessie from Catherine Court. They were to be married, having strolled together in Tower Gardens. Chapter X begins to explore this earlier relationship before the OCR becomes too garbled to continue reliably.