The Argosy — page 277: what you’re looking at

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

250 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. ‘‘ But now it becomes equally important whether it was a fancy or a fact,” pursued the Vicar, deliberately, ‘‘ because, in the one case, it may prove an insidious on-coming of mental confusion and trepid- ation in his mind, suddenly bursting out at last.—And, to speak the truth, Frank, I have a conviction that the business falling upon Leonard in consequence of his inheritance has been too much for him. See how he has worried his brain for hours, evening after evening, over the intricate accounts.—In the other case, it goes towards the theory of the secret presence in this house of untrust- worthy, designing people. Well, Leonard spoke to me about your father’s ring—the red intaglio.” ‘And what about it?” asked Frank, breathlessly. ‘ If the Vicar had been watching him, he might have noticed that the young man put his fingers into his waistcoat pocket and touched something there. It was the ring. He had not worn it on his finger since his return to Ravenscourt, but had fastened it to his watch chain, out of sight. ‘Leonard thought he had lost it,” said the Vicar. ‘He felt quite sure he had put it away in a certain drawer in his bureau, and when he chanced to look there, it was gone; so he declared he was terribly vexed about it. I expect it is really there, all right,” Mr. Toynbee added. ‘‘And that mistake need not argue much mental muddle either. More than once, I have lost things, and found them, months after, in their proper place.” Amid all his perturbation, Frank could scarcely help smiling at the good man’s simple self-satisfaction—while all the while his own absent- mindedness, and the faithful but domineering “management” of his ‘old housekeeper, were bye- “words 1 in the village. ‘‘T know where the ring 1s,” said Frank, slowly, and raither guardedly. “ My brother was right: it was removed from its proper place, and it was recovered in a very unaccountable way. I have it now, quite safely.” The Vicar looked at Frank with a shade of friendly suspicion. Did Frank think he had a right to that ring as a personal remembrance of his father, and so had possessed himself of it? But the Vicar would have as soon expected the church tower to fall, as to find his old patron’s younger son guilty of the least wilful evasion or mislead- ing. No; that could not be! Their eyes met. The candid young face flushed with the mere ‘consciousness of a secret. | ‘There is some sort of conspiracy going on about the Court,” said Frank. ‘‘The removal of that ring was one sign of it. And there have been others. In simple fact, sir, sundry matters have come to my knowledge which have compelled me to apply for help to a detective. I would tell you all about it, only until something is discovered, a slur of suspicion, probably quite groundless, seems to rest on every name that has to be drawn into the matter.” Mr. ‘Toynbee sat silent and thoughtful. He knew that he, too, had his little secret—the solution of his problem about Evelyn’s face ECOPMICLIOO KS, (E00)