The Argosy — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

248 Mrs. Raven's Temptation. child who preferred a troublesome and unreasonable request. ‘‘ You are getting some other strange fancy into your head in place of the one your London journey drove out of it.” “TY don’t often ask anything of you, Leonard,” she wailed, “‘ but let this man stay. Your father let him stay. You—you of course know who this man is said to be, Leonard: that he has Raven blood in his veins.” ‘Shall I give you my opinion, mother—that he never ought to have been tolerated on the estate at all. When shameful things happen they should be hidden away out of sight.” “You are right. But it was not done. Here the man has been, and here he is; and it will be cruel to uproot him. III character though he may be, he is to be pitied. He is not a Raven, of course ; but " “T should think not,” scornfully spoke Leonard. ‘‘ Not a Raven ! ‘You are not carrying your changeling theories back for a generation or two, I should hope, mother.” | “Leonard,” said his mother, with sudden dignity, ‘‘ you blamed me for having allowed one fancy to grow to gigantic proportions in secrecy and silence. Do not, therefore, blame me for speaking now. Call this a fancy if you will, but the instinctive feeling against it lies too strongly within me to be flung aside. If you will not listen to my prayer, you must to my command—forgive me for presuming, Leonard. I desire that Eldred Sloam should remain where your father left him.” ‘Well, I won’t speak to him to-morrow, at any rate,” Leonard answered, with that sort of indulgent indifference with which nurses assent to the ravings of delirium. ‘‘ Will that satisfy you? I can’t promise more than that. He shall stay on for the present.” ‘And you will not dismiss him even later on, without giving me due warning?” she eagerly urged. “Very well, mother, I will also promise that.” “Thank you, Leonard,” she said, her tone trembling with emotion, “thank you very heartily. Even if you think you err, you will not regret erring for once on the side of mercy at your mother’s request.” Leonard wished her good-night, and went away wondering. “It is indeed high time she got acompanion,” he mused. ‘I begin to think my father’s death gave her a greater shock than I thought. Seems to me that her brain must be giving way!” CHAPTER XIV. MARY DAVIES’S ACCIDENT. FRANK RAVEN dragged on his weary weeks in London. Philip | Connell could not understand him at all. Philip’s own plan of life was to work by night and trifle about through the day, earning by Gomichookssco