The Argosy — page 365: what you’re looking at

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

344 Aunt Paradox. died pretty soon and left her very slenderly provided for. Putting her boy and girl to a cheap preparatory school, she wormed herself into Uncle Charles’s house, as companion to his wife, whose health was then beginning to fail, and whom she invariably called ‘Cousin Jane.’ She played her cards well at the Manor; was crafty, under- bred, unscrupulous, and very sweet upon both, getting complete sway over the two. I believe they grew to look upon it that they had nothing less than a Peri within their gates.” ‘* You did not, at any rate,” laughed Mr. Ryde. “I! Oh, I neither did nor didn’t ; I was only a careless schoolboy then. I had her character from Uncle Charles of late years. She made me and Polly call her Aunt whenever we were staying at the Manor, and it grew into a habit, but she is no aunt of ours.” ‘Pray are ‘ Mary’ and ‘ Polly’ one and the same individual.” “Quite so, and my little sister. A nice child, Ryde !—years and years younger than I am. _ It’s a shame, though, she should be under the care of Aunt Paradox.” “Does the Aunt Paradox still live at Hartley Manor ?” “Not she. I left my tale unfinished. After poor Aunt Charles’s death, she assumed by soft and imperceptible degrees all the airs and graces and the control also of the Manor’s mistress. She very nearly gained the post she was then working on for—that of second wife to its master. But he found her out in time—all her craft and her worthlessness, and he shut up the Manor for a spell, quietly telling her she must return to her own home, and went abroad for a season, and never believed in Aunt Paradox or her sweetness again. JBut in the will that he made after his wife’s death, the will which, as I have told you, is still in existence, he left her five hundred a year for life.” “And how.comes it that you let her have charge of your sister ?” “T can’t help it; it was no doing of mine. My mother, a gentle, loving woman, believed in Eliza Paradox to the last ; and she left Mary under her charge when she died. She couldn’t leave her to me, I suppose, a bachelor knocking about in chambers; or to my Uncle Charles, as there was no mistress at the Manor; and she chose Aunt Paradox. So there it is. And I can’t go to Brighton with you, Ryde; I must stay here to see to things and await old Stephon. He may turn up at any hour.” About a week passed on. Mr. Stephon had come back, and Richard Damer had gone down with him to Hartley Manor, which lay about twenty miles west of London. ‘The lawyer did not hold the will; he said he never had held it ; it had been placed by Mr. Damer himself in the small cabinet in the library as soon as com- pleted; he, Mr. Stephon, was present and saw him lock it up securely : he had not since seen it. Every place, likely and unlikely, was searched, but it could not be found. ECORNICLOOKS.€©