The Argosy — page 287: what you’re looking at

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

268 The Mystery of Allan Grale. A note was lying on the toilet-table. She stood still, her breath coming fast. Nobody can fathom the wave of misery which broke over her at that moment, and was hardly to be accounted for. Details of old tragic gossip, scraps of half-forgotten newspaper para- graphs whirled through her brain, while Alny’s baby fingers seemed to stroke her face and his boyish laughter to ring in her ears. Were these her son’s last words—then they must be for her first! With one desperate resolution, she took up the paper. This was the note that Edgar Vivian had left on the preceding afternoon, and which Susan had placed on the table. It was addressed to Allan himself. Mrs. Grale shrank from opening it; she wondered who it was from and what it contained. If Mr. Grale heard of Alny’s staying out, there would be an outbreak of scolding and recrimination, and nobody knew how it would end. Her fear always was lest such out- breaks should result in Allan’s refusing to live at home. If only this lapse could be “ got over” quietly, she herself would “ talk seriously ” to Alny, and it might never happen again. Mrs. Grale’s aspirations were all for a quiet life. Well, well; if the matter was to be smoothed over and brought right without a fuss, there must be no outcry now. She thought she heard the rattle of the housemaid’s box on the stairs, and her mind seemed to make itself up on the instant. It is wonderful of how much self-control the weakest women may be capable, when they need it to screen a scandal on one they love. She took the key from her son’s door, stepped outside, locked it, put it in her pocket, and went downstairs. It is hard to believe, but she scarcely felt so agitated as when she had ascended them. Then she had given her- self up as a prey to vague, superstitious forebodings; now, she deemed that she knew what had raised them, and that she knew its limits. ‘“‘ Mary Anne,” she said, as she entered the dining-room, glancing round to see that James was not there, ‘‘ Allan is not in his room ; he has not been at home all night.” Mary Anne, attending to the flowers, set down a vase with a jerk. “J thought there must be something wrong,” said she. ‘He must have forgotten his good manners, I suppose, as he did once before.” ‘“‘Didn’t you say he answered your first knock ?” asked Mrs. Grale. “JT thought I heard a sound,” replied Mary Anne, “ scarcely an audible one. It sounded like a groan. Of course I inferred it came from him.” ‘‘When this thing occurred before, he did not come home till late the next evening,” observed Mrs. Grale, looking anxiously into her daughter’s face. Mary Anne laughed slightly, ‘‘I remember,” she returned. ‘ He seemed to think we might not notice he had missed a day !” ECORNICLOOOKS. eC) m