The Argosy — page 278: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. 259 jadies—Mrs. Grale and Mary Anne; and he was not sorry they were out of the house, for his visit was not to them, neither did he par- ticularly care to see them. He went up the avenue. The door of Moorland House did not stand open, after the hospitable fashion of most country houses. Mrs. Grale had been a town dweller in her young married life, and had then contracted sundry habits and prejudices which she had never since shaken off. ‘To see her precautions against fire and thieves, one might have imagined that half the population of Dering belonged to the dangerous classes. The door was not opened to Mr. Edgar Vivian very quickly, and the attendant was not the usual prim manservant, but a buxom little damsel, one Susan Brice, whom Edgar knew as one of his sister’s former Sunday scholars, and who had been recently taken into the Grale service. She wore a dazed smile on her face as if she had been interrupted in some very pleasant occupation. ‘““Is Mr. Allan Grale at home ?” ‘““No, sir,” she replied, ‘“‘ he is just gone out. Only just, sir.” “JT am unfortunate!” said Edgar, looking back down the avenue as if he might catch a glimpse of Allan’s retreating figure. ‘Is he likely to be away long ?”’ ‘““T don’t know, sir, he didn’t say,” answered the girl. “Do you happen to know in which direction he went ?” Susan reflected :. her thoughts were evidently elsewhere. ‘‘ No, she didn’t know.” ‘The door in her hand almost imperceptibly went to a little, as if she had felt she had done her utmost for this visitor. But she liked to be very civil to dear Miss Vivian’s brother, so she reflected again, and looking at the hall table, said that she had noticed a little parcel lying there, directed to Mr. Charles Carr, and as it was gone now, she thought Mr. Allan might have taken it to Dr. Palmer’s himself. “Well, I must try to overtake him,” said Edgar. ‘ But in case I don’t, will you tell him—Stay,” he thought, ‘‘better not to trust her; she might forget it.” ““T will come in and write a note,” he said, aloud. The servant admitted him, and he turned to the hall table. “I can write it here,” he said; “I want to be quick over it that I may go out and see if I can find him.” She went away and returned with pens, ink and paper. But Mr. Vivian had already written his note in pencil on a half sheet of paper which he tore from a pocket-book. It was very short. “DEAR GRALE.—Will you join me to-morrow afternoon at the Black Pool for an hour or two’s fishing ? Let me know at once if you cannot come. I shall understand silence‘as consent. Fix earlier or later, should the afternoon not suit you. | “Yours ever, EDGAR VIVIAN.” COM a HOOKS.EO