The Dugdale Millions — page 223: what you’re looking at

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

ME Sy SHANTON SIN TRIGCE, 23 Dick was struck by the resemblance of this sentence to one used by the old man Pierson, in his conver- gation with him, applying it then to Mrs. Pierson. ““¢ Must be [ went on Bob, reading]. I leave my only child to the tender mercies of a world which for the past years has been cold and heartless to me. “«My name is Edmund Dugdale. Iamnowtwenty- six—I am a son of Samuel Dugdale, a man of great wealth and a merchant of London, I have named my child after him, though I have been discarded by him since I crowned my follies in his eyes by marry- ing a public dancer. I had given myself up to the frivolities and gayeties of the world, refusing to ac- knowledge the traditions of my house, which, if fol- lowed, would have led me into the counting-room of Samuel Dugdale & Son and into a commercial career. But these my father forgave, believing that in time I would tire of them and devote myself to business, When, however, I married my poor ‘‘ Here,’ said Bob, “the manuscript stops suddenly, an interruption having occurred, for the sheet is not wholly covered. I have also, and finally, this begin- ning of a letter, undated : “¢ My dear Father: In the agony of distress, weep- - ing over the body of my wife, starved before my eyes without my ability to avert it, clasping my offspring in my arms, your grandson, I have determined to make one more appeal to you; not in my own behalf, for I care not now how soon death may over- take me, but for the sake of this dear motherless child, innocent of any wrong toward you.’ “And here again,” said Bob, “ this ends abruptly.” “If the handwriting of these scraps,” said Mr. Stanton, “ were to be compared with that known to be Comicbookks C@ 3}