A Daughter of Delilah — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

~~~ ye PON ‘LOVE THAT HATH US IN THE NET!” 43 She wrote this with many misgivings. Was there any- thing wrong in doing so? Was there anything that was not strictly within the bounds of decorum? The letter was sent by a servant to Mr. Hawley’s apart- ments in T'wenty-third street. A year previously he had occupied, with his parents, a house as handsome as that of Mr. Jabez Alston, but Mr. Hawley, senior, had lost every cent of which he was possessed in some gigantic enterprise which had ingulfed the fortunes and the honor of many other men who had been reputed as wealthy as Croesus— — he lost every cent, and the shock killed him. The erst- while gilded broker, whose plunges had made even a mon- archy tremble, died with scarcely enough left to pay his funeral expenses. His house, his furniture, his horses— everything was sold to satisfy the greedy maw of the creditor. | The man who had received their fawning caresses, they now cursed for a knave, because the cards had at last run the wrong way. His son and widow moved into a cheap flat in Twenty-third street, and Edward Hawley, who had never earned a meal, found himself face to face with life in its sternest aspect. Twenty dollars, an ornamental edu- cation, and a name which had become a by-word, was his stock in trade. An old friend offered him the post of book-keeper ina large dry-goods store, but he felt that it would be an im- position to make a pretense of doing that of which he had but a very superficial knowledge. He respectfully declined the offer, and was cut to the quick to see that his decision was received with relief—nay, almost gratitude! “Tam an object of pitiable charity,’ he thought, bit- Eomichboo <S (Eo)