Gratia's Trials — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

GRATIA’S TRIALS. | 71 headed gentleman of about fifty-five, with keen blue eyes, a nose like an eagle’s beak, and the dictatorial manner which be- longs, however unconsciously, to the rich man who has yet to choose his heirs. All the Falconer family, with the single ex- . a, % x < be ? as , « ception of his nephew, Hugo, werein awe of Uncle Ralph and enacted the affectionately subservient. _ Was it to be wondered at that he acquired a degree of arrogance in his bearing and manner? | ) Mrs. Falconer was a lady who all her life had made great show upon little foundation, and always contrived to outlive her income. Perhaps, as Uncle Ralph surlily insisted, it was natural to her ; if she had had the income of the Baroness Roth- schild she would still have spent a few sovereigns more per annum ; perhaps, on the other hand, it was owing entirely to the fact of that income having been comparatively small. She had married a dashing, handsome man, who had spent her little fortune, and died leaving her penniless. Hugo, her eldest child, had entered the arena of business life at a very early age, and proved eminently successful therein. He had married and was left a widower when young, but throughout his whole financial career he had uniformly made his mother a liberal allowance, upon which she shone at watering-places and fash- ionable haunts. In New York she kept Uncle Ralph Miller's house for him—a splendid mansion on Fifth avenue, which afforded a luxurious home for herself and her family. She had two other children besides Hugo—Robert, a son of about twenty-two, who pretended to be studying law, but in reality, did nothing most persistently. He was a handsome young blonde, as unlike Hugo as it was possible for two brothers to be. As for intellect, he might have had a com- manding one, but up to the present date it had not developed itself. | : Alberta Falconer, the youngest of the family, was a brunette of twenty, a thorough New York girl, with dashing manners, showy accomplishments, and plenty of confidence in her own- (E(0) com ieboo S