The Argosy — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

G6 The Mysteries of Fleron Dyke. He had not gone many steps from the house when there was a rustle amidst the trees he was passing; and a young and well-dressed man, so far as Mr. Conroy could see, who had been apparently peering through an opening in the trees, walked away quickly. ‘He was watching the house,” said Mr. Conroy to himself. ‘‘One of the spies, 1 suppose. What on earth 1s it they are spying at ?” Dull enough felt Ella after Conroy’s departure. ‘‘I’ll get a book,” she said, shaking off her thoughts, which had turned on the man Conroy had seen behind the yew-tree: and she went to a distant room in search of one. Coming back with it, she saw the two house- maids, Martha and Ann, standing at the foot of the stairs which led up to the north wing. One of them held a candle, the other clung to her arm ; both their faces were wearing an unmistakable look of Cerror. ‘‘What is the matter?” she asked, going towards them. ‘‘ We've just heard something, Miss Ella,” whispered Ann. ‘One of the bed-room doors up there has just shut with a loud bang.” “ And it sounded like the door of “ev room,” spoke the other from her pale and frightened lips. ‘‘ Miss Ella, I am suze it was.” ‘The door of whose room ?” asked Miss Winter sharply, her. own heart leaping fast. ‘‘Of Katherine’s,” answered both the maids together. The leaping rose to Ella’s throat now. ‘‘What business had you in this part of the house at all?” she questioned, after a pause. ‘Mrs. Stone sent us after her spectacles,” explained Ann. ‘She eft them in your sitting-room, ma’am, when she was up there seeing to the curtains this afternoon. She sent us, Miss Ella; she’d not go up herself at dark for the world.” ‘‘ Did she send both of you?” was the almost sarcastic question. ‘‘'Ma’am, she knows neither one of us would dare to go alone.” ‘You are a pair of silly, superstitious girls,” rebuked Miss Winter. ‘‘What is there in the north wing to frighten you, more than in any other part of the house? I am surprised at you; at you, Ann, especially, knowing as I do how sensibly your mother brought you up.” | ‘“‘T can’t help the feeling, miss, though I do strive against it,” said Ann with a half sob. ‘‘I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help myself turning cold when I have to come into this part of the house after dark.” ‘‘We hear noises in the north wing as we don’t hear elsewhere,” said Martha, shivering. “Miss Ella, it is true—if anything ever was true in this world. It was the door of her room we heard just now—loud enough too. Just as if the wind had blown it to, or as if somebody had shut it in a temper.” “There is hardly enough wind this evening to stir a leaf,” reproved their young mistress. ‘And you know that every door in the north wing is locked outside ; except that of my sitting-room.” CONnNIELOOKS (E() m