The Argosy, Vol. 68

About this issue

This July 1899 Argosy serialization, "The Tower Gardens" (Chapter XXIII, unnamed author), continues a domestic drama centering on two men—John Harbuckle and Arthur Bayliss—whose lives intersected twenty-four years prior in London's Tower Gardens. Bayliss has unexpectedly returned from West Africa via Lisbon after his presumed death in the shipwreck of the Mellacoorie. The men meet in the Tower Subway and later in the gardens, revealing that Bayliss fled England decades earlier due to financial difficulties (evading creditors) and has now returned. The encounter is emotionally fraught: Bayliss's wife died while he was absent, and his young daughter Jessie now lives with Harbuckle's household in Trinity Square. Both men harbor conflicting emotions—Harbuckle harbors resentment over Bayliss's role in Jessie's mother's death, yet they reconcile. The narrative then shifts to Harbuckle's household awaiting dinner, with tensions building as Harbuckle prepares to inform his family of Bayliss's return.