The Argosy — page 188: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. $75 Works can’t compromise his dignity by carrying a hamper,’ he added laughingly. ‘*That’s the sort of thing peers do, to prove their undoubted superiority to conventional public opinion.” Mrs. Grale smiled. She liked a speech of this kind. It opened possibilities for her own free and easy ways among her bran-new grandeur. But the fear of Mary Anne was always before her eyes. “Well, do as you like, Alny. You needn’t bring the hamper back. There would be nothing polite in that. ‘Tell nurse to return it at her own convenience.” Allan’s movements in arranging this little gift for the old servant might be regarded as somewhat peculiar. First, he went to the store- closet, and sought among the hampers for something which he did not find ; one of the older hampers, not impressed with this brand of ‘ G.’ But there was none. His choice fell on a hamper which seemed rather strong and large for the carrying of mere cuttings. It had a lid, and its handle was fixed in- the middle of this lid. Next Allan went to the greenhouse, and made a careless and not very liberal selection of flowers and roots. He dropped these into the hamper, and then, instead of starting straightway for his walk, he carried the hamper upstairs to his own room, spread a newspaper on the floor, and emptied its contents thereon. Next he unlocked his wardrobe and took from one of its shelves a box of Oriental workmanship. This he deposited carefully at the bottom of the basket, which he then filled up again with his flowery spoil, and left the house. Glancing at the parlour window, he saw his mother watching him. She smiled and nodded pleasantly, thinking to herself that he was a son of whom any mother might well be—oh, so proud! Between Moorland Hall and Nurse Kate’s cottage, Allan passed only two or three rustic children. He found Nurse Kate full of the disaster which had befallen General Vivian, word of which had reached her just before Allan’s arrival. ‘This was the first Allan had heard of the General’s illness, and it rather staggered him. Had poor Edgar’s unlucky position somehow leaked out, and thus upset the old man ? “Tf you’ve been so good as to bring me all the pretty flowers with your very own hands,” said the grateful old nurse, ‘‘at any rate, you shan’t drag back that basket, Master Allan. Leave it with me. Its weight, when it’s empty, will be nothing even to a poor old body like I am getting.” “Then it must be still more trifling for a strong young body like me,” returned Allan. | He did not say that the basket was not yet empty, that it had another cargo to unload, not there, but at Dering Court. He knew that curiosity was one of the old dame’s paramount qualities, and that what she was not fully told, she would certainly set herself to find out. It struck her as a curious thing that Allan should persist in carrying away the basket; she was shrewd enough to feel that he must rave some reason for it, and she was on the alert at once COM a DOOKS (SO) im