The Argosy, Vol. 34

This July 1882 issue of The Argos features Chapter XXIII of "Mrs. Raven's Temptation," a domestic mystery serial. At midnight, a piercing scream startles the Reverend Connell's household awake. Mrs. Connell and Miss Cleare had witnessed a cloaked figure crossing the garden before the cry—a figure Miss Cleare recognizes as one she'd encountered previously in the Ravenstoke lanes. The intruder appeared to raise a ghostly white face marked with red, made a threatening gesture, then vanished. Philip Connell leads a thorough search of the house, finding no intruder. The family debates whether the scream came from a man or woman, whether the figure was real or imagined in moonlight, and what its appearance means. Mrs. Raven remains notably pale and trembling throughout, claiming only to have been writing a letter to her son Leonard.