A Fair Fraud — page 276: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXI One afternoon in the following June a smartly- dressed little lady craned her pretty head eagerly across the white marguerites and scarlet ger- aniums in her own window .boxes, in the vain endeavour to see round the corner of the next street. It was a lovely day, and London was full of the bustle and brightness of the season ; carriages filled with smartly-dressed women dashed constantly by; pedestrians in light summer attire thronged the pavements; a wedding was taking place at the church on the opposite side of the square; an afternoon ‘at home’ was going. on a few doors off, and a brass band was playing a noisy selection from the last new comic opera at the corner. Everything was in full swing, yet the little lady watching at the window was not interested in any of these interesting things; what she was looking out for was only a cab laden with luggage that had not made its appearance. ‘He ought to be here by now!’ she said, coming back into the room. It was her own pretty drawing-room, with its white woodwork 265 COMnniclooolK