The Argosy — page 358: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. 337 “Oh!” exclaimed Rose, sobbing. “It was Uncle Joseph,” explained Cicely, who was really Mrs. Tree. ‘He would not rest, he could not rest, lest shame had come to you, child. Wecould not trace you ; but some one mentioned to us a rumour he had heard, that the gentleman who had called him- self Mr. Forester was really a Mr. Vivian ; and we believed that you had gone away either with or after Mr. Forester. By dint of enquiry we got to know that a family of rank, named Vivian, lived at Dering, and I came off in pursuit of you, keeping myself, so far as I could, secret.” ‘Do you mean that you came here ?” gasped Rose. “Yes. And no sooner was I here than I was baffled. I heard a rumour that Mr. Vivian was supposed to be engaged to a young lady named Grale; I did not know him by sight, never having seen Mr. Forester, and a little circumstance led me to think that it was this young lady’s brother, Allan Grale, who had been at Redbourne as Mr. Forester, and not Mr. Vivian. Still I did not know. I watched them both, here and sometimes in London, hoping to see you with one of them. If by good chance I could hear either of them was going to take a journey, I tracked them to the railway stations. I called myself a seamstress, in the hope of getting employment at Moorland House or here at the Court, that I might, if possible, pick up a stray word of news of you. I could not help thinking, you see, that you were living in concealment at Dering, or in its neighbour- hood. But I never tracked you, Rose, never: I could hear nothing, and I suspected the worst. If George Vivian “Oh, Cicely, Cicely! don’t blame him!” sobbed Rose. “ He is dead, and nobody and nothing here can be anything to me. ‘This place is only where he looked at me and died! ‘Take me away to Redbourne, where he and I were so happy! Take me back to Uncle Joseph. I know uncle will forgive me: George always said he would. I thought so, too. I was not so sure of you, Cicely—and yet see how kind you are!” Cicely’s own eyes were full of tears now. She had to reveal a sorrow which they could share, as Cicely did not quite feel she could share Rose’s grief for George Vivian. “Poor child,” she said, gently, “‘ poor child! ‘The world is full of change and loss. Many things happen in a few months, Rose.” Rose drew herself away from her cousin, and sat upright, with wide-opened eyes and mouth. “What has happened, Cicely ?” she asked blankly. ‘He forgave you, dear; Uncle Joseph forgave you. You remem- ber how bad his rheumatism always was—and they say his heart got affected. And—he died, Rose, early in the summer.” “Uncle Joseph dead!” gasped Rose, her tears checked by this new shock. ‘‘ And the Ash-tree—and the old parlour ! —it has been before my eyes all this last night.” wo, XL. Z (C(O) An) (C 6)(0)(6) SHa(C