The Argosy — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

10 Mrs. Raven’s Temfpdation. “ Tll speak to Philip about it again to-morrow,” said Leuisa, “and hear what he says.” Evelyn gave a smile of disdain. ‘‘ Were I as sure as you are that it ought to be done, I would not beat about the bush: I would do it,” she remarked. But Louisa said no more. She felt altogether weak and con- temptible in comparison with this strong-minded young woman. So Miss Evelyn Agate got leisure for quiet meditation. The figure in the garden to-night must be certainly identical with the ghost of Ravenscourt that walked in the moonlight,—the ghost of whose baneful influence on the neighbourhood the Ravenstoke sta- tioner had spoken,—the ghost which Alice Cleare and herself had both seen at Ravenstoke, and almost on the same spot. What could be the meaning of its appearance at Coltburn? Had it followed any- one of them? Herself 2—or Mrs. Raven P—or Frank P—or even Alice Cleare? Nay, not Alice: that idea was too ridiculous ! Suddenly, all in a moment, Evelyn’s heart gave a great leap. Its pulses stood still, and then bounded tumultuously onwards, as a thought which (strange, perhaps, to say) had never struck her before, that her own birthday and Frank’s were the same! Could it be that she was the daughter of the house of Ravenscourt ?>—could it be posstble that she was Mrs. Raven’s child, and that this second son of the family was but a changeling, a stranger and usurper? But the very fact of her own newly-formed intimate relation with Ravenscourt only made this idea more incredible to Evelyn. For had not those relations been formed in the most conventional manner —formed simply by her own answer to an advertisement in a public print? Evelyn’s was not a mind predisposed to believe in provi- dential coincidence. Yet she harped upon the fancy: that she might be Miss Evelyn Raven. Imagination begun to flutter its wings. The witch must have indicated Frank in the persistent but indifferent lover—surely, yes! And if he became aware of his precarious position, and of how a marriage with her might assure it for ever without pain or scandal, that would both explain and justify a rather loveless suit. It was the course human nature would necessarily take, and she would certainly not blame it. But she did not allow herself to believe that her fancies were facts: she was too practical. Stay !—There was Marco Learli again ; and all the indefinite and . wonderful possibilities she saw foreshadowed in /zs future. The . desert of her life had suddenly broken up into enchanting prospects. | Mirages they might be: but then, again, they might not. And in the meantime, though the horizon had so brightened, the ground remained as solid as ever under her feet, and she must be wary and cautious. For no vague hope of pushing her fortunes, for no wild dream, even of empire, would she risk her present snug resting-place at Ravenscourt. CORNICE OOOKS (CO)