A Fair Fraud — page 200: what you’re looking at

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

iin -—_—_ - - a eee my a -_ “ee “Aa . A Fair Fraud 189 ‘My dear Ken, the two things seem hardly compatible,’ remarked the barrister, thought- fully. ‘No? Well, to me, they are perfectly clear. The girl, you see, has explained her motives pretty candidly. When there isa blackguard in a woman’s life who blackmails her—why there is scarcely any interpretation but one, that any sensible man, however charitable he may be, can possibly put upon the fact.’ ‘My dear Kenneth, who do you imagine this man to be, then?’ inquired Naylor, quickly. ‘What do you imagine is his relation- ship to Miss Lane?’ Captain Drury shrugged his shoulders con- temptuously. ‘Her lover, I imagine,’ he said bitterly, ‘What else can he be?’ Naylor looked up hastily. Upon his lips there hung a warm denial; for justice was instinctively dear to him, and the false assertion aroused every bit of manliness within him. He ranged himself heart and soul on Hester’s side immediately—and on Marion’s—but fate slipped in, and the elucidation of the mystery was once more postponed. Before the words could find utterance a hand was clapped on his shoulder, and Mr Drury appeared suddenly between the two friends. ‘You are to come with me, Naylor; and GORMGIOO oO G' Q)