The Argosy — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

98 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. Miss Agate ought to have seen a reason for not proclaiming her name! Look at the undue advantage it gives Creed! Of course, he will know everything at once !” ‘What is there to know P” Philip looked at the questioner. ‘Does the name of Agate suggest nothing to you, Frank P” ‘Nothing at all. Except that it is a singular name.” ‘You are not much over twenty,” you did not read newspapers in your cradle. Any more than did I, for that matter. But since then my reading, as a lawyer, has lain among old cases, precedents, and so forth. So, I presume, has Mr. Creed’s. ‘Therefore, he will recognise the name of Agate; may go down to the Detective Department at Scotland Yard, and ask if the name is known there. I don’t suppose the staff are entirely changed, even in the course of twenty years. Though, if so, they won’t have allowed a standing reward of five hundred pounds to slip from their books—even in that time.” ‘Why, what are you talking of, Philip ?” ‘She is an aggravating woman !” was all Philip retterated. ‘“‘ Her extraordinary frankness will only make Creed think there is some very cunning cheatery about the whole affair. Never can I get her to understand that, if you honestly wish people to believe the truth, you generally have to tell them a le. The world is taught on its very copybooks that ‘appearances are deceitful.” When I am at my wit’s end to get more credit, I always tell my tradesmen I’m very hard up. They think I’d never say so if it was true!” ‘Well, all I can say is, that I am glad to have met Miss Agate; or I might think London morals as hazy as London streets.” And there rose up in Frank’s mind a picture of the sweeping fields at Ravenstoke, with the pale light dying on the edge of the horizon, and the great trees closing up round the old hall, and the maid-ser- vants stealing across the lawn to have a gossip in the village, while the footman drew the curtains of the drawing-room and shut in the lamplight. His mother would be sipping her tea; Leonard wandering about the room glancing at newspapers and dipping into books. Frank could never have imagined that at that moment Leonard handed his mother a telegram, just delivered to him; and that she read it with half-blinded eyes and a reeling brain. ‘From Messrs. Dewe and Creed, London, to Leonard Raven, Esq.—Two ladies are coming to our office at noon on Saturday in response to advertisement. Report promising. ‘Telegraph instruc- tions.” ‘Leonard, Leonard,” said his mother, seizing both her son’s hands and clinging to him, ‘‘I must go up to London.” ‘You will only compromise yourself in some way, mother,” dissented Leonard. ‘‘ Better wait and see what they find out.” “Tell them, the solicitors, to take care I don’t compromise myself returned Philip. ‘Of course, | CONMIELNCOO_ KS, (EC) m a