A Fair Fraud — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

6 A Fair Fraud of her. She was to come home to Crookthorpe with him, and he would provide for her, he told Mr Johnson; he could not promise, of course, to place her exactly on the same footing asa daughter, but, at any rate, he would undertake to see that she did not come to want, either before or after his own death. Mr Johnson, knowing that Mr Drury was.a wealthy mam, considered these words a sufficient guarantee for the child’s future, and John Drury took the little girl back with him to his country house in the Midlands. By the way, he explained to her very care- fully what her position would be in his house. — She was not to run away with the idea that she was a rich young lady because she had come to live in a luxurious home. She must bear in mind that she was not going to be in the position of his daughter, because she had no real claim upon him atall. At the same time, if she made herself useful and pleasant to Mrs Drury, he should not object to her continuing to live with them, and she might regard herself in the light of their adopted niece. Little Marion, in her black frock, seated opposite to him in the first-class carriage of the fast flying train, gazed at him silently with her soft, dark brown eyes, and listened to him very attentively. She looked a pathetic little figure enough, in GOMMGIOO oO C' Q)