The Argosy — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. 5 description Miss Cleare gave of the figure she saw that night in the Raven lanes!” ‘And Miss Cleare thinks this is the same figure she saw then.” Mrs. Connell’s words fell upon the room as an electric shock, Mrs. Raven, sitting apart, pale and silent, lifted her face with a start, and dropped it again. Philip was the first to find tongue. ‘‘ Vo /” he exclaimed. “Yes, yes, Philip,” said his mother. ‘‘ Miss Cleare recognised the figure with a start; I could feel that, as she caught hold of me. It was the same figure which had frightened her in the Ravenstoke lanes, she whispered. ‘The evening she met you, you know, Frank. You were talking of it in the drawing-room to-night.” Louisa caught sight of her aunt’s face; and it startled her. ‘‘ Dear Mrs. Raven! how pale you are! Ought you to sit up to be troubled by all this? Shall I go with you to your room ?” Louisa’s words recalled Evelyn Agate to the duties of her own place. She sprang up and approached her mistress. But Mrs. Raven put them all aside. She was usually pale, she said, with a would-be careless smile ; she thought they had all been a little startled. But certainly she would not go to her room. She was far too much interested: and she believed most people liked mysteries. And so Evelyn slipped down on the footstool beside her, and sat there, holding her hand. With her white robe relieved against Mrs. Raven’s sombre gown, and Frank leaning on the back of his mother’s chair, the group would have made a pretty tableau. Evelyn was aware of this. She was sure to be aware of a pretty tableau in which she played a striking part. “Well,” said Philip, ‘how did you recognise this figure, Miss Cleare ?” “Only by the cloak and hat,” she answered. . ‘‘On_ neither occasion have I seen anything of the face, except its whiteness. In the mooniight it looked like that of the dead. But it had a strange red mark at the side. I can’t say what it is, exactly.” ‘“T thought no face was to be seen!” exclaimed Philip. ‘Yes, just a glimpse of it both times; its colour, not its features. I have never seen anything as white in my life as it looked each time in the full moonlight. It was raised for a moment to-night, just as the figure turned : and then it held out its right -hand clutched, and shook it with a threatening gesture.” ‘‘ And, before the figure disappeared, you and my mother heard the scream. Did you think that scream came from a man’s voice or a woman’s?” ‘YT could not tell,” replied Alice. by Nor I,” said Mrs. Connell. ‘It only seemed a cry of awful pain.” ‘““Of terror and despair; as it seemed to me,” observed Alice Cleare, gently. ‘‘I am not sure but at the moment I caught up ECoOnnicloooks (GO