The Craze of Christina — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

46 The Craze of Christina. solitary dinner that evening, with Docker and his satellite-like mutes behind his chair, the thought came to him that he had been a fool to repel the advances of those three amiable ladies who had wheeled down his avenues to welcome him to Middleshire. Why had he thrown these would-be friends to the winds? why had he flown in their faces by rejecting their kindly counsels? He began most bitterly to regret even the ‘‘universal mother,’’ and as to the lively and Innch-loving Mrs. Bruhen, and the hospitable lady decorator—why, he felt as if he would give worlds to avail himself now of their friendly offers! But he supposed that he had offended them all mortally, and that they would never forgive him or be frieuus any more! You see, Clifford was so very ignorant and stupid as to forget that he had £8,000 a year, and that there was never a woman born who could be cruel and implacable for any length of time to such an income as that! As chance would have it, he happened to be in Oldcastle on the following morning. Hewas walking aimlessly down the center of the main street—pedestrians in country towns | have re- marked frequently do tramp along the centers of the streets instead of on what our American cousins cail the ‘‘sidewalks "—when suddenly GComichooks.co