The Craze of Christina — page 196: what you’re looking at

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

192 The Craze of Christina. Docker thought about the afternoon party at Esselton when the great hall had been cram- full of the creatures and their fal-lals, and he remembered well how they had all crowded about their host with smiles and pretty words and animated gestures. He groaned aloud. “But fifty thousand pounds, Mr. Scrubb! Just think of it! to throw away such a sum for a woman!’’ and the supreme contempt which _ Docker threw into the last word beggars de- scription. Mr. Serubb shrugged his shoulders. ‘‘To you and to me, of course, such a wanton waste of the only thing worth living for, is naturally quite incomprehensible; it is more, it is an un- pardonablesin. But Mr. Clifford is twenty-five —it is quite possible that he has become infat- uated.”’ “You think then——’”’ “‘T think that—he is in France, it seems. As we know, French ladies are proverbially fasci- nating, as wellas unscrupulous. Some fair siren has no doubt laid her toils for him, and he has flung a small fortune away in order to remain in ignominy at her feet! However, you can at any rate comfort yourself with one reflection—Mr. Clifford dare not marry, either this lady or any Gomichooks.co