The Argosy — page 207: what you’re looking at

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

IgO The Mystery of Allan Grale. letters from Philpot Street, Stepney. But she didn’t say if that is her real home, sir, nor how long she has lived there.” ‘“Philpot Street is a respectable street,” observed the Doctor, “I happen to know it. It is close to one of the Great London Hospitals, and is quite a superior street for its neighbourhood. If this woman’s habits are quiet and respectable, I don’t see that you need be uneasy, Mrs. Massey.” “Tyve no fault to find with herself,’ said the widow. ‘ She’s pleasant like, with a sensible, cautious sort of manner. Buta sort of suspicion about her got into my head at first, may be at her wearing such a particular coloured cloak. It’s yellow, sir, and I’ve never seen the like of such a one before.” “It may have come as a fashion from Paris,” laughed the Doctor, as they all paused at the corner where he and the widow must turn aside to the woodman’s cottage, leaving Maria to pursue the short remainder of her walk alone. As she went on, she turned and looked behind her in the gathering twilight. She wondered that they had not been overtaken by her brother George, if he had come home by the train: he had been staying in London for two or three days. Maria was still looking backwards, when there was a sudden sound of footsteps near her ; but these were in front, though she had seen nobody advancing towards her. Looking forward with a start, and a sudden leaping of her heart, she saw Allan Grale in the middle of the road, only a few paces in front of her! This piece of road ran quite straight between high hedges, broken not far off by the lodge gates of Dering Court. Yet Maria was sure nobody had been there only a second before. As Allan could not have risen from the ground, where could he have come from ? “You here—so late—alone, Miss Vivian!” he exclaimed. He seemed out of breath—and surely he looked pale and wild! ‘‘T am near home,” she said. No mere ordinary greeting passed between them. And it was she who held out her hand to him. ‘““Can you do that still ?” he asked, in a half choking voice. “TI can,” she answered in a tone thrilled with emotion, “I can. Nothing can ever be with us as it might have been. But something always remains. Allan,” but here she dropped her voice to a whisper so low that even the very air around could not catch the words. ‘‘ Let me hear you bid me trust you on this one point,” she went on, raising it again. “Trust me!” he echoed, with a depth of bitterness and remorse, painful to her ear. — “Tf T thought I could not trust you so far, then may God strengthen me to prevent the evil that would ensue. You will thank me some day, Allan, if I save you from this last sin.” ‘““Nobody else can ever suffer as I have made you suffer,” he croaned. CONNIE OOO KS (EO) m