Guy Hammersley; or, Clearing his Name — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

GUY HAMMERSLEY, 9 little incident. For Judge Dodge was known to all, being the magnate, so to speak, of Brilling. He owned a large amountof the most valuable property in the town, including the opera house itself, and occupied a mansion on Elm Avenue that the towns- people regarded as little less than palatial. He wasa widower, and some few months previous had adopted the boy who was with him in the box. And the townspeople remarked how strange it was that Reginald, who was an exceedingly handsome little fellow, should have almost the same regal bearing that distinguished his ‘‘ grandfather,” as he had been taught to call Judge Dodge. ‘‘Mrs. King seemed to be trying to get to his box when she fell,” was the next thought that flashed into the collective Brilling mind. ‘‘Truly, there is some- thing mysterious here.” The collective Brilling mind wasright. There was a connection between Mrs. Hammersley’s fiasco and Judge Dodge’s box. © _ The latter was connected with the stage, and Colonel Starr met the judge at the door. ‘‘You say Mrs. King wishes to speak with me,” the capitalist repeated, as he followed the colonel between stacks of dusty scenery to the dressing-room, to which the soprano had by this time been removed. ‘“Yes; she asked for you very earnestly as soon as she recovered consciousness. ‘The gentleman with the little boy,’ she kept saying. ‘I must see him !’” ‘Ah, it is the boy!” exclaimed Judge Dodge. Then, drawing a deep sigh, he added: ‘‘This is what I have been dreading all along,” Gomicboo S) (E(0) m