The Argosy — page 267: what you’re looking at

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The Master of Greylands. : 249 CHAPTER XI. INSIDE THE NUNNERY. THE time had gone on at Greylands; and its great theme of excitement, the disappearance of Anthony Castlemaine, was an event of the past. Not an iota of evidence had arisen to tell how he disappeared : but an nneasy suspicion of Mr. Castlemaine lurked in corners. John Bent had been the chief instigator in this. As truly as he believed the sun shone in the heavens, so did he believe that Anthony Castlemaine had been put out of the way by his uncle; sent out of the world, in fact, that the young man might not imperil his possession of Greylands’ Rest. He did not say to the public, in so many words, Mr. Castlemaine killed his nephew ; that might not have been prudent; but the bent of his conviction could not be mistaken; and when alone with his wife he scrupled not to talk freely. All Greylands did not share in the opinion. The superstitious villagers attributed the disappearance to be due in some unconjectural manner to the dreaded spirit of the Grey Monk, haunting the Friar’s Keep. Their fears of the place were augmented ten fold. Not one would go at night within sight of it, save on the greatest compulsion; and Commodore Teague (a brave, fearless man, as.was proved by his living so near the grim building alone) had whis- pered that the Grey Friar was abroad again with his lamp, for he had twice seen him glide past the casement. What with one fear and an- other, Greylands was not altogether in a state of calmness. Mary Ursula had come to Greylands’ Rest. The once happy home at Stilborough was given up, the furniture sold: and the affairs of the bank were virtually settled. The opinion that a sufficient sum would be saved from the wreck to bring her in abouta hundred and fifty pounds per annum had proved correct ; that income was secured to her for life and would be at her disposal at death. All claims were being paid; liberal presents were given to the clerks and servants, thus thrown suddenly out of employment ; and not a reproach, or shadow of it, could be cast on the house of Castlemaine. Before Mary had been a week at Greylands’ Rest, she was mentally forming her plans for leaving it. Mr. Castlemaine would fain have kept her there always; he was fond and proud of her ; he thought there was no other woman like her in the world. Not so Mrs. Castlemaine. She resented her husband’s love and reverence for his niece; and she, little-minded, full of petty spite, was actually jealous of her. She had always felt a jealousy of the banker's daughter, living in her luxurious home at Sulborough, keeping the high society that Mrs. Castlemaine did not keep; she had a shrewd idea that she herself, with her little tempers, and her petty-frivolities, was sometimes compared unfavourably with Mary Ursula by her husband, | comicbooks.ce