The Argosy — page 204: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. 187 the mother, “but if you want a walk, you may as well have an errand.” It was twilight when he started on this quest. It occurred to him that he was little likely to meet Maria Vivian at that hour. That letter with the Carstow Club seal lay in his pocket lke a weight of burning lead. When he got home, he would have to write a certain note—a short note—but it would take him some time to do! Maria had called at Dr. Palmer’s that afternoon, and found nobody there but himself. He had insisted on her coming in, saying that his young folks would return very shortly. She was not sorry for a quiet talk with the good Doctor. The anxieties which her uncle had confided to her, immediately before his illness, had taken root in her mind, and were springing up abundantly. She was not happy about either of her brothers. Edgar, whose con- fidant she had been, was now writing and receiving many letters of which he told her nothing. But her chief anxiety concerned George. He looked worn and troubled, and a singular absent-mindedness kept him continually making strange omissions or mistakes. After the first day or two of his uncle’s illness, he had ventured to leave him for a visit to London ; latterly, he had been going there nearly every other day, though he certainly did not stay long. He always seemed a little more cheerful before he started, and he always came back very weary and depressed. Once or twice, he had spoken of the weary burden of conventionality, and of that sweet simplicity of life which men banish far from their ways, and then profess to admire at a distance. It was as if his mind’s eye was being drawn away from all that he had hitherto held dear—as if he felt some change or doom was hanging over him. . Maria noted all this, and a rather curious dread had seized upon her. She feared that this cherished brother, hitherto so open and light hearted, might be suspecting himself to be the victim of some insidious, perhaps deadly, malady, whose progress he was trying to combat and check in secret. She knew George was not considered strong ; anxiety had often been entertained for him. Edgar had always the best of health, but George had been often ailing. Maria could not speak fully of her thoughts and fears to even so old and trusted a friend as Dr. Palmer. Yet there was comfort in his cheery presence: and, as he had promised, his young people were not long in returning. ‘They came in, flushed with their exertions in sun and breeze. Maria looked a little pale as she shook hands with Charles Carr. No word had ever passed between her and the Palmers concerning the breach with old Mr. Grale, and this was her first meeting with Charlie since it had happened. “Look what we have found!” said Agnes, gaily, taking from Charlie’s hand a fresh looking basket with a flat top and a handle in the centre. They had evidently promptly utilised their trover, for it was now full of ferns. GomilGoaooks (SO)