The Argosy — page 184: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. 167 by accident in her uncle’s fall? Or had it been wrenched from him while he lay insensible ? How vexed the General would be about it! And, in connexion with his old happy superstition concerning it, she could not sup- press a feeling of uneasiness in herself. Its loss (just now, too,) seemed like an evil omen for George. That is the worst of accepting auspicious signs. Their reverse is forced upon us. It is few who have the happy philosophy to accept those, and yet resolutely ignore these. Was it not possible that it might be recovered? Surely it might be lying in the road where the General had fallen, and possibly it was trampled down by the feet of those who had come to his succour. Maria had desired Webster not to leave the Court: she could ascer- tain from him the exact spot where the accident had taken place. As she went downstairs, she had a curious fancy, which is a com- mon enough experience with those who are in an exalted nervous state. It seemed to her as if she had lived through all this before—even down to this little detail of the missing pendant—and that nothing but a curious cloud on her memory prevented her from recovering the whole course .of events, and knowing what would have to happen next. Surely she must have dreamed of this last night! Yes, yes, she had. For one instant, it almost seemed as if she had it all in her grasp, but it was only as one might see a wide expanse of country revealed by a flash of lightning; another second, and all was obscurity. | Webster was standing where she had left him—on the terrace out- side, near his horse and chaise. Maria put her question. ‘“Midway on the road between this and the ‘Knight’s Arms,’ ma’am,” he answered promptly. ‘‘ Rather nearer this than that.” “But can you tell exactly whereabouts it was?” she inquired again. ** Did not you notice the precise spot ?” Webster looked at her a little wonderingly. ‘‘ Well, miss,” he said, “‘T was so taken up with the sight of my poor master, that I can’t say I noticed just exactly. He was lying on that bit of road at the back of the trees of the Dark Pool.” Maria was silent. Yes, it was so! Directly she heard it, she felt she had known this, too, before. ‘The Dark Pool had been in her last night’s dream. But also, there had been’something more about the Pool than this, and what that something was still escaped her. “It’s a very quiet part of the road, that, Miss Maria. No houses near. My wife always says she feels a kind of shiver in going along it; as if something bad had happened there once, or is to happen | there, someday. It was a kind of providence that a stranger was coming along just there and saw the General, for he sent us word, if he did no more.” “What stranger?” asked Maria. Webster shook his head. ‘I can’t tell you, ma’am. It was little COIN | cam ¥ SeOOKS (SO