The Argosy — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. 163 been stolen from our house already, there might be danger for this one, and mounted guard over it most assiduously. No wonder she has grown fond of Evelyn, and anxious almost*to a mania for her welfare !” “Ah, she is a faithful old retainer,” remarked Philip, carelessly, the subject not much interesting him. ‘‘Was she with you at the time of your great trial?” ‘No; not for some months after that. I had been inquiring at the shops for a young servant, and she presented herself. A timid, feckless thing, she seemed, poor and friendless, who would be glad to do anything for a bit of bread. “s ‘Like many another London girl,” put in Evelyn disdainfully. “She was a country lass,” said Miss Agate. ‘‘I caught up an impression that she had been in some trouble or sorrow in her country birth-place, and had come away to London out of it. She came from Alstock, in Surrey.” “That’s not far from Ravenstoke,” observed Frank, ‘‘ though it’s in another county.” ‘Did you never hear her history ?” asked Philip. “Never,” said Miss Agate. ‘‘ And I have grown to doubt whether she has any history to tell. JI do not find enough employment for her myself, but the other people in the house do, and so—here she has stayed. She has never, to my knowledge, received a visitor or a letter all these twenty years. Nor has she ever taken a holiday.” ‘She looks merely a decent, doleful, affectionate, common-place woman,” observed Philip. ‘“‘ Exactly so,” said Miss Agate, ‘‘and I have found her invaluable. My poor brother’s peculiar condition demands that I have some very faithful, obedient ally—inclined to submission and silence. The lodgers like her, too: and some of them have been here many years. I have had to let my rooms, you know, to eke out my small income.” The confidences demanded by her morning interview with the lawyers seemed to have broken down Miss Agate’s accustomed reserve. Never before had Philip Connell heard her allude directly to the skeleton in her home—her brother. “Does Mr. Agate really see nobody ?” he asked, genuine sympathy mingling with his curiosity, “or is an exception made in favour of Mary Davies ?” , “He sees literally nobody but me,” said Miss Agate with sad serenity. ‘I do all the work in his room, and take him the meals which Davies brings to his door. I don’t think he is unhappy. These are habits he formed directly he was released from confinement.” “But how can he endure the awful monotony ?” cried Philip. ‘‘ He seems quite absorbed in his classic authors,” returned Miss Agate. ‘‘ They were always the delight of his life. He writes well, too, and editors are glad of anything from his pen. JI have made his room yery bright and pretty,” she continued after a pause. “It has CONMICMOOOKS.C©