A Fair Fraud — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

' A Fair Fraud 15 hand upon his heart with an «affected gesture of humility. He meant, no doubt, to make her laugh, for there was not a scrap of un- kindness or malice in his heart, but she coloured up hotly as_ she _ passed him, and afterwards the tears gathered thickly in her eyes. ‘I am less than nothing to him!’ she said to herself, bitterly. ‘He thinks far more of the feelings of his pointer Bess than he does of mine!’ | But it was on this very occasion that Kenneth Drury had _ remarked to his mother,— ‘That little protéeée of yours is becoming a very pretty girl, mother.’ ‘My dear! are you speaking of little Marion? What an idea!’ ‘Well, I have got eyes in my head, my dear mother.’ | Mrs Drury turned round rather sharply from her writing-table. ‘My dear boy, how ridiculous! You can’t possibly mean to tell me that you admire her! Why, she is not in the least in your style!’ ‘Not in the least! My style is tall and slim and fair. Ah—h!’ and Kenneth blew an imaginary kiss off the tips of his fingers to some mental picture which his own words conjured up—‘a goddess is my style, my dear mum—a, veritable goddess!’ Goo oO C' Q)