The Argosy — page 189: what you’re looking at

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

172 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. the dower-house—when you marry.” She had come round to his side, and laid both her hands on his shoulder. » “There will be no hurry for that,” he observed. ‘And promise me one thing, Leonard,” she went on, ‘‘and do not be angry with me for exacting the promise.” “What is it?” he asked. “That you will not be led away into falling in love with any young person I may hire.” | Leonard laughed. ‘‘ That is easily promised, mother. If I ever marry, I have made up my mind to marry enough money to buy the Overhill estate: the land would lie so well with mine. You needn’t be afraid for me. But if you’ve made up your mind to have Frank at home again, that will be a different matter. He is sure to do the wrong thing and leave undone the right.” “Frank is not you,” remarked his mother, coldly. ‘‘ He will never be anything but a second son.” “T don’t know that you are wise in wanting to bring him much about this house now,” reflected Leonard. ‘‘ Whenever I do marry, he must go, of course ; and the less he has grown to regard Raven as his head-quarters when that time comes, the better for us both.” _ ‘You have always so much common sense, Leonard,” said Mrs. Raven, wearily. ‘‘But you must yield to me in this, my dear. I must have Frank here once more—not as a guest, knowing when he is to go, but as an inmate. I have been vainly telling myself that I must be his mother for the last twenty-two years, and just as I began to leave off so doing, the mother yearning has come,” she added, with a piteous smile. ‘‘He will not interfere with you. And 1 must have my companion, too. I have your permission and your promise as to fer, have I not, Leonard ? ” “Certainly,” he answered. ‘‘ Both were alike unnecessary.” ‘Then, as this has been a fatiguing day and I feel tired, I will go to my room,” she said, rising. ‘‘ Good night, Leonard.” ‘Good night, mother,” he responded, and opened the door for her to pass out. | “T never thought her nerves could have shaken so,” reflected Leonard as he returned to his seat.. ‘‘Why, she looks as if she had just recovered from a fever. I ought to have put my veto on all this imaginary nonsense when she first mentioned it. But she pleaded as plausibly on the one side then, as she pleads to-night on the other. And then, too, Iam quite sure she had her suspicions of—of my father. It is indeed high time she had a companion; and when she gets one, I must send them both away for change of air and scene.” Mrs. Raven went to her room, it is true, but she did not go to her bed. She opened her desk, and sat down before it. She wanted a companion: how was she to discover one? ‘True, the want had been suggested to her by hearing that Evelyn Agate wished to go out as such. She wanted /em EGomichookssco () m