The Argosy — page 291: what you’re looking at

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

268 The Story of Charles Strange. I should die with terror. He replied, jestingly, then if I chose to be so foolish, I must die: the hurt was his, not mine, and if he saw no occasion for having in the police, and did not choose to have them in, surely I need not want them. I was perfectly safe and so was he, he continued, and he would see that I was kept so. He would not even have the doctor called in at first; but towards mid-day, when the fever returned and he became delirious, Mr. Drewitt sent for him.” “That seems more strange than all—refusing to have a doctor. He Mal geet 2 The arrival of coffee interrupted them. Sanders brought it in in a silver coffee-pot on a silver tray, with biscuits and other light refreshments ; and Mrs. Edwards attended to pour it out. Mr. Ravensworth repeated to her what he had just said about the doctor. “The fact is, sir, my lord does not like Dr. Macferraty,” she re- joined. ‘‘None of us in this house do like him ; we cannot endure him. He has not long been in practice, and we look upon him as an upstart. It is a great misfortune that Mr. Hill is away just now.” ‘The usual attendant, I presume, Mrs. Edwards ?” ‘Yes, sir; and a friend besides. He and the late lord seemed al- most like brothers, so intimate were they. Mr. Hill’s mother is going on for ninety ; she is beginning to break, and he has gone over to see her. She lives in the Isle of Man. It is almost a month since he went away.” ‘The late lord? Let me see. He was the present lord’s uncle, was he not ?” “Why, no, sir; he was his father,” returned Mrs. Edwards, sur- prised at the mistake. ‘‘The late peer, Archibald Lord Level, had two sons, Mr. Francis the heir, and Mr. Archibald. Mr. Francis died of consumption, and lies buried in the family vault in Marsh- dale Church; and Mr. Archibald, the only son left, succeeded to his father.” “Ves, yes, I had forgotten,” said Mr. Ravensworth. ‘An idea was floating in my mind that the present peer had not been always the heir-apparent.” CHAPTER. 2 MYSTERY. SILENCE had fallen upon the room. Coffee had been taken, and the tray carried away by Mrs. Edwards. It was yet only eight o’clock. Mr. Ravensworth sat in mental perplexity, believing he had not come to the bottom of this dreadful affair ; no, nor half way to it. But Lady Level was in still greater perplexity, her mind buried in miserable reverie. A conviction that she was being frightfully wronged in some way, and that she would not bear it, lay uppermost with her. Since meeting with the railway boy, Sam Doughty, the previous after- CONNIE KOOKS m