Guy Hammersley; or, Clearing his Name — page 174: what you’re looking at

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

GUY HAMMERSLEY. 165 CHAPTER XXV. MR. ARTHUR SHEPARD, Guy and his peculiar companion had by this time reached the neighborhood of Central Park, and the former had now learned that the other’s name was Arthur Shepard, that he was quite alone in the world so far as immediate family was concerned, although he hada host of relatives eager to fawn upon him by reason of the fortune his father had left him. Having a strong taste for the stage, he had taken up play writing, and, as he numbered among his large list of friends many actors and not a few managers, he had had no difficulty in getting his comedy ac- cepted. All this he told with the frankness of a child. ‘‘Somehow it comforts me,” he explained, ‘‘to be able to talk in confidence to a fellow I’ve never seen before. You see it can’t do any harm; he doesnt know any of my friends, and he can’t very well carry tales. I don’t know but gossip would lose allits sting if it were only carried on among total strangers. It would stop every time then, don't you see, with the first person who heard it.” Whether impelled to do so by these philosophic precepts, or influenced by the example set him, Guy Gomichboo <) (E(0) m