A Daughter of Delilah — page 198: what you’re looking at

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

A FATHER’S THREAT, ~ 189 CHAPTER XVII. A FATHER’S THREAT. The change that took place in Jabez Alston was marvel- ous. It was noticed at home, at the office, and among busi- ness friends, who commented upon it freely. Though scrupulously neat and clean at all times, the financier had never cared for fashionable clothing. He rather affected the puritan dress of two or three decades past, and delighted in a high keen-edged collar that seemed to accentuate the stern lines in his thin face, and give him generally an appearance of resolute coldness, For thirty years he had never been known to be half an hour late at business. He had shot through the outer office, never deigning to notice any one except to cast a fierce glance at some delinquent caught whispering. For thirty years had this been his rule, and now he had missed business for two whole days in one week, and had been seen in Broadway attired in a suit of the latest cut and pattern! If the metamorphosis of Alston, senior, was a matter for curious speculation, so was the remarkable change in Alston, junior. | Edgar attended to business with the regularity of clock- work, and, under the guidance of Billings, made progress that was astonishing to“himself and those friends who cared to interest themselves in his movements. He worked (E@AAIKCEl exeyxe) cS