The Argosy — page 287: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Master of Greplands. 269 a slight shiver, as they descended the dark staircase. ‘‘I feel lonely and fatigued, and in want of companionship.” Mrs. Bent was gratified, rather than otherwise, at the request; and caused the tea-tray, already laid in their room, to be carried into the parlour. The same parlour, as the room above was the same bedroom, that had been occupied by the ill-fated Anthony Castle- maine. ‘‘Y hope you are a little less tired than you where when you arrived, madam,” said John Bent, bowing, as he with deprecation took his seat at last, and stirred his tea. ‘‘ Thank you, I have been forgetting my fatigue in listening to the story of one Mr. Anthony Castlemaine’s disappearance,” replied Madame Guise, striving to speak with indifference. ‘ The account is curious, and has interested me. Mollee thought you would give me the particulars.” “Oh, he'll do that, madam,” put in Mrs. Bent sharply. ‘“ There's nothing he likes better than talking of that.” But John Bent’s account was in substance the same as Molly's. He could tell neither more nor less. The poor lady, hungering after a word of enlightenment that might tend to lessen her dread and horror, listened for it in vain. ‘‘ But what explanation can be given of it?” she urged, biting her dry lips to hide their trembling. ‘‘ People cannot disappear without cause. Are you sure it was Mr. Castlemaine you saw go in at the gate, and to the Friar’s Keep ?” ‘‘T am as sure of it, ma'am, as I am that this is a tea-cup before me. Mr. Castlemaine denies it, though.” ‘And you suspect—you suspect that he murdered him! That is a frightful word ; I cannot bear to say it. Meurtre!” she repeated in her own tongue, with a passing shiver. ‘Quelle chose affreuse ! You suspect Mr. Castlemaine, sir, I say?” John Bent shook his head. The encounter with Ethel had taught him caution. “I don’t know, ma’am,” he answered ; “I can't say. That the young man was killed in some way, I have no doubt of—and I think Mr. Castlemaine must know something about it.” . ‘¢ Are there any places in this—what you call it ?>—Friar’s Keep ?-- that he could be concealed in? Any dungeons?” ‘“‘He’s not there, ma'am. The place is open enough for anybody that likes to goin. Mr. Castlemaine had aman over from Stilborough to help him to search, and they went over it together. I and Superinten- dent Nettleby also went in company; and others went. There wasn’t a trace to be seen of young Mr. Anthony, nothing to show that he had been there.” ‘So it resolves itself into this much,” said Madame Guise—"“ that you saw this Mr. Anthony Castlemaine go into the dark place,on that ECoOMmicloooks (C(O)