The Argosy — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

24 Mrs. Raven’s Temptation. can be at Raven. I know how you country folk credit towns with everything that is uncomfortable and wicked. But we have lived here nearly thirty years, and nothing of this sort has happened before.” ‘Perhaps it happened in my honour,” said Mrs. Raven, with a sickly smile. ‘‘You ought to be glad to get quit of me.” Mrs. Connell protested, and then went off to her kitchen to give sundry directions about dainties for the invalid’s lunch. She gathered an impression that that domestic section of her house was not in perfect peace. Minton was in a state of dignified displeasure with Julia, the younger servant. But the mistress did not choose to make any inquiries. Mrs. Connell rarely interfered with her delegates in kitchen or school-room. If they were found not fit to be trusted, then it was time for them to be deposed. Certainly there was no gainsaying the good sense of the remark which Mrs. Connell overheard falling from Minton’s lips. “Don’t tell me any falsehoods, Julia,” said that worthy woman. ‘‘'That’s sure to be the upshot of flurries and hurries and frights, and things that can’t be accounted for. ‘They serve well enough as excuses for ways that need excuses. It isn’t the first time that you’ve not known what you were doing. .There! say no more. If you had done it, as was your duty, and as you say it was done, then I should have found it done this morning, and there’s an end on’t.” When Mrs. Connell returned to the sick-room, she met her nephew coming out of it. Frank had been paying his mother a visit. To him, too, she spoke of a speedy return home. She would go as soon as possible. She could not rise to-day, but she would be able to travel to-morrow. “T don’t think you should have left your room either, Miss Connell,” said Evelyn, addressing Louisa later. ‘‘I am quite sure you are suffering like your aunt ; and, like her, you would have been better at rest and in quietness.” ‘“‘T always suffer when I lose any sleep,” answered Louisa, bravely ; ‘but I never allow myself to give way to mere sensations of languor and weariness.” Frank looked at his cousin when he heard this little colloquy. How pale and changed she was! Was this the same girl whose blooming beauty had so struck him when he first arrived at Coltburn so short a time back? And the havoc in her appearance seemed to have been wrought in the last few hours. Frank wondered. Had Louisa’s nerves really been so shaken by the interview with the woman—in conjunction possibly with the fright that occurred the following night? He recalled his promise to go to her to-day. Only he shrank from it. It was odd how reluctant he felt to do what he knew to be contrary to the views held by Alice Cleare. Why should the wisdom of this young governess, younger even than CORNICE OOOKS (EO)