The Invisible Match | Short Story | Victorian Romance | by Frank M. Bicknell
The Invisible Match ~ A Victorian Romance Short Story by Frank M. Bicknell
"Was she falling in love with him, or still more alarming thought, had the fall been already accomplished? She tried to gauge the strength of inclination toward him by recalling some of the half-forgotten love affairs of her younger days. She found such a standard of measurement almost useless. She had been scarce more than a child then, whereas she was now a fully developed woman and capable of a depth of feeling quite impossible in former years. Compared with her young maiden fancies the emotion which swayed her now differed in kind no less than in degree."
A delightful Victorian Romance awaits you. Can you guess the secret of The Invisible Match?
What was that small, shining object lying on the carpet under the head of the lower berth?
"Anne cast a deliberate glance around the little cabin to make sure she had forgotten none of her belongings. No, she had overlooked nothing--yet, stay! what was that small, shining object lying on the carpet under the head of the lower berth? Certainly it could be no property of hers. She stopped and picked it up. It proved to be a match-box such as smokers carry in their pockets, a handsome and costly affair, apparently of foreign workmanship. It was made of hammered silver and was elaborately ornamented."
One look was sufficient to judge him to be a gentleman
At this she stopped short with a little cry of vexation, whereupon a man who had been walking behind her halted also. Almost as a matter of course he begged pardon for what had seemed a narrow escape from a collision, and then, noticing her perplexity, he asked if he could be of any service.
"I love him! I love him! I love him!" she cried.
As she had hoped and expected, he heard the slight noise, and swinging about in his chair, bent and picked it up. She stretched forth her hand to take it. A joyful light came into her eyes, and then died quickly out again, for--oh, mortifying disappointment!--he utterly failed to recognize her. With a little conventional bow he restored her property and resumed his own reading without according her a second look."
Frank M. Bicknell (1854-1916), was a novelist, journalist and short-story writer of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
"It seemed only too evident that he had not thought it worth his while to keep the appointment which he himself had made, and now she realized with bitterness largely mixed with shame how deep was her disappointment at his neglect to do so. "I love him! I love him! I love him!" she cried, "and he cares not one straw for me."
All Photo Credits: Personal files of Nancy Oram