The Argosy — page 262: what you’re looking at

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

Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. 243 while she knew all about Evelyn, Evelyn knew nothing about her— not even of her existence. Unless Frank had chanced to see her through the medium of Philip Connell, and had made some vague mention of his mother. Frank’s mother! And to think that Evelyn had never heard of her, unless it might be by that name! Mrs. Raven moaned as she lay in the darkness. But—what possible connection could there be between Evelyn Agate and the peasant Eldred Sloam, that this threat should be held out to her? The man rose up before her sight now, with his fine figure, his well-formed, bold face, and his half-genial, half-insolent manner. She knew all the gossip connected with this man, all the scandal of the by-gone days. Mrs. Raven had heard nothing of Eldred Sloam’s suggested departure. If such a step were in contemplation, it must be the result of some sudden decision of her son’s. How had other people heard of it? Apart from any self-interest, Mrs. Raven did not like the step. It had pleased her husband’s trustees, and her husband later, to continue the benefits to the man that the old Squire had begun ; they had lasted so many years now that he might be excused for thinking he had a sort of right to remain on the estate. It was unwise of Leonard to put old institutions at defiance, and It was unkind. Could it have been this movement of Leonard’s, which rumour might have carried to the gipsy woman’s ear, that sug- gested the warning rhyme, spoken by her at the Pitchfork. The more Mrs. Raven thought of this possible action of Leonard’s, the less she liked it. In what way it could affect herself in her private interest, she saw not, but she felt strangely uneasy. Would it be in her power to turn Leonard from his will—and when she dared give him no reason for personally wishing it? Anyway, she must try to do so. But all this was beside the question. The invisible writing on the sheet of paper—how did it come there? It was she herself who had sent Charity Hale to fetch the paper from her desk downstairs in the morning, giving her the key to unlock the drawer where it had been kept since black-edged paper had been substituted for dainty monograms. She remembered that Charity had been quick on her. errand, for she had thought at the time, how active the old woman was still. Surely Charity could not have had anything to do with it! Just at the very moment when she had resolved to act as if every- thing was as simple and straightforward as it appeared on the surface, she found herself caught by some inexplicable power, which seemed to detect her unspoken motives, and to use them as a means of com- passing its own secret ends. Who was this strange woman—and was she this inexplicable power in her own person, or only its agent? And what had she to do with Evelyn? Anything ? How came the deserted child, Evelyn, to have found its way to Cconniclbooolks (C(O)