Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

ie ' “i FY » AN INTERESTING DWELLING. = = — 1207 will follow it up. I will leave no stone unturned until Fe: get to the bottom of the whole matter. How tenderly affectionate this letter must have been,” he continued, with curling lips. “He sorrows with her, and would have come to her ‘had it been possible’. He evidently wanted her to remain here after her mother died until he could come. Meantime he advises a companion and protector, and does not wish her to ‘mind the expense,’ because he has a ‘right to care’ for her, and incloses a check as sub- stantial evidence of the fact. “Why didn’t she stay here, I wonder?” he pursued, musingly. “Why did she go to Richmond to look fora situation as governess, or was that only a blind to cover her flight—to deceive him. There is a mystery about it. Can it be possible——” He sprang to his feet with the sentence unfinished on his lips, and began pacing the floor with a clouded brow, and his mouth drawn into a stern, resolute line. “She is dead, though, if she was Geoffrey Dale Hun- tress’ mother—and Um as certain of that as that lam the heir of Vue de l’Eau—for that woman, Margery, said that he could not realize his loss when she died. But who was his father?—-why was he named Geoffrey Dale? by - whom and why was he abandoned in the streets of New York? There is some dark secret connected with Annie Dale’s life and her disappearance from Richmond, and I shall never rest until I know thé whole story from begin- ning to end.” He continued his pacings and mutterings fora long while, growing more and more excited over the matter. His face wore a dark and troubled look as ever and anon he raised that scrap of paper which he still held in his hand and seanned those disjointed lines, At last he folded it very carefully and put it safely away in his wallet. | “Tt mav come handy some day even if the other half is wanting,” he said, an evil smile curling his lips. Then he set about finishing the exploration of the little cottage. There was a little hall leading from one end of the par- lor and a flight of stairs conducted to the second story. Ascending these Everet found two comfortably fur- nished chambers above, one of which had evidently been used for a servant’s room. Retracing his steps he came to the front door, which he found fastened with a spring lock. He then went back to a O Geom Eboo S (€(0) 3