The Argosy — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

20 The Mystery of Allan Grale. second squirrel cloak ; and Mrs. Vivian never condescended to any- thing lower than sealskin with sable tails. Besides, the felt bonnet was of too youthful a shape for Mrs. Vivian, and Mary Anne did wonder what pretty face it was destined to adorn. George did not volunteer the information, and she would not ask it. Then it seemed to Mary Anne that her father had never been so peremptory and uncom- promising. They played whist after dinner; she and Mr. Grale were partners, and he kept finding fault with her play. When George wished them good-bye and went away, he had said never a word about his purchases. This visit happened only two or three days after Christmas. Now in Dering it had long been the custom to have a little village festivity in the schoolroom on the last evening of the year, ending with seeing the New Year in at a midnight service in the church. Gifts were always distributed among the old folks and the children on this occasion, and if Mrs. Grale’s bales of flannel, and heaps of woollen socks were not quite so fine as those sent from the Court, they were always double in size and number. The young Dering people who had more time than money, such as the Miss Palmers, or the poor genteel widows and maiden ladies, had hitherto provided for the children by manufacturing satchels and workbags, pinafores and pin- cushions. But this year, Mrs. Grale, in the restless activity of her present state of mind, had planned a new departure.: She had seen how far and how effectively a very little money would go among the wares displayed at Christmas in the London toy shops, and she had invested accordingly in little bottles of scent, painted paper pictures, and toys that were not bulky. These were all packed in readiness to be sent to Dering. And it suddenly occurred to Mrs. Grale, as she sat at breakfast the morning after George Vivian’s visit, that he might take them down for her, and so save the payment by rail. Mrs. Grale was ever thrifty. ‘They could be just put into the first class carriage beside him, and then no harm could happen to them,” she remarked. Mr. Grale maintained his usual early habits, had break- fasted and was gone out. ‘TI cannot think how you can dream of troubling Mr. Vivian about such rubbish,” cried Mary Anne. ‘He will have parcels enough of his own,” she added, acidly. ‘No trouble at all,” returned Mrs. Grale. ‘What isa little trouble to young men? And Mr. Vivian is too obliging to object, if it were. I’ll send Susan to the station with the things in a cab, Mary Anne; and I’ll bid her just stow them in wherever Mr. Vivian tells her.” You will find that Susan herself will not care for such an errand, mamma.” But there she reckoned without her host. Susan had come to London in attendance on the ladies, their own maid being ill ; and her face brightened the moment she heard what her mistress wished her to do. Mr. Vivian would leave London from the station where her comniclooo ks (C(O)