The Dugdale Millions — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

84 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. in his own house, as formal as possible. I do not for get that Mr. Hetlow once delicately hinted something about the inexpediency of junior clerks being received at their employers’ houses on terms of social equality. True, I am not now a junior clerk, but I have never been invited to visit Mr. Hetlow in any other capacity than as assistant. So, if you will permit me, I will address a note to him.”’ About the time Dick was asking Wallis for writing materials, Mr. Hetlow was taking Lord Merrimount into the library, at the request of the young nobleman for a formal interview. Bessie had refused to believe that the object of Lord Merrimount’s visit was to propose for her hand. Yet she had heard so much from Wallis and others about her, all of whom had settled into the fixed belief that such was his object, that when she learned the two had shut themselves up in the library, she became nervous and excited, and could no longer remain in her apartments. Soshe ran out to consult with Wallis as to the course she should pursue, in case the confer- ence with her father and Lord Merrimount resulted in a proposal for her hand. While she bitterly con- demned herself for entertaining the idea that her hand was the object of the young nobleman’s visit to Amer- ica, yet she determined she would not yield, however disappointed her father might be. She would not admit herself that her heart was given to Dick. Of course that idea was preposterous after the way he had treated her. But she determined that the man who won her hand must first win her heart, and to do that he must possess qualities similar to those of Mr. Mason. She was quite young enough to forego bril- liant position in the world for a man she loved ane admired the most, but which of course was not Mr. Mason. Oh, no! Not after that day when he had attributed such base and sordid motives to her and had dared to reprove her, Comicbookks C@ 3}