The Argosy — page 187: what you’re looking at

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

170 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. some better time would serve as well. And then your father was so proud of the fine healthy baby—and you, Leonard, were still so de- licate—and he used to impress me with the vastness of the blessing which had at last given a hopeful heir to his old family line.” There was a pause. Both were thinking. “But Frank certainly has a Raven look, though he ‘has not the Raven hair,” observed Leonard, glancing at Gilbert Raven’s portrait on the wall. Leonard had not loved his father, nor had he, ‘either by nature or training, any fine instincts or principles of morality. - If Frank was not Mrs. Raven’s son, there seemed one easy way of accounting for his introduction into the family circle. “T thought of that, too,” said the widow, lowering her voice-as she caught Leonard’s unspoken thought. ‘I reflected that to breathe any doubt was to cast a slur on my husband’s honour; and I felt sure that any such slur could not attach to him, that he was not one to deserve it. No, that could never have been true, Leonard: so I made up my mind to bear in silence. You, my own: boy, lived and flourished ; why should I disturb the peace of the family by what seemed so like a whim ?” ‘Why, indeed,” remarked Leonard. ‘But, then,” resumed Mrs. Raven, “‘look at your father’s strange will! What did itmean? J/marvelled; had he, too, had his doubts, and kept them secret? And anything that gave colour to my old sus- picion could only arouse a craving that had always accompanied it, to put, if possible, the uncertainty at rest; and so I spoke to you, Leonard. If Frank be not my child—where is my child? ” ‘Dead, probably, if it was indeed taken from you,” said Leonard coolly. ‘I’m sure it is a miracle I lived, with the utmost skill and attention lavished on me. I believe that you have built up the whole story from a craze that got into your head when you were half delirious, mother—and your long-kept-up reticence served but to nourish it. How could such a thing be done—your own child changed for another—unless those about you were treacherous ?” “True,” she faintly responded. | ‘¢ As for my father’s will, I don’t think there was anything so very peculiar about it, and what there was, points in a different direction from your fancy. Frank was undoubtedly my father’s favourite, and his arrangement, I think, shows how much he trusted your love for Frank. Would he have done so, had he any reason for guessing that you might, sooner or later, discover» his favourite to be but a changeling ? For I know Frank was my father’s favourite: he never cared for me,” Leonard repeated frankly. ‘‘ All you say is very reasonable, Leonard,” said his mother, softly. ‘So reasonable, that it confirms me in the wisdom of my decision to stop in this quest. Since you think as you do, you will be glad to hear that I told the lawyers to make no further inquiries.” ‘“That’s all right,” said Leonard ; “had you found it practicable CONMIELICYO KS, (EO)