Her Faithful Knight — page 244: what you’re looking at

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

240 Dorothy’s Crime. Secretive and taciturn by temperament, she enjoyed anything in the nature of a mystery as keenly as do all her class, and the notion of a plot, of however innocent a kind, between her mistress and herself, gave a zest to life under which her spirits revived wonderfully. Half an hour later Dorothy called her to her bedside again. “We will go and stay for a few days at your brother’s cottage near Ham Common,” Miss Knight said. “I have been thinking it all over, and it is just the place for us. I know when we lived at our old home I often used to think that if any one wanted to hide, that cottage in the nursery garden, hidden among tall trees, would be an ideal retreat. I shall soon get strong again there, and we can drive all the way down. But first of all I must get some of my money from those lawyer people.” And here a difficulty presented itself. Cresswell de- tested writing and could only with great difficulty be induced to sign her own name. Dorothy’s handwriting was altogether unlike that of her sister, and it was quite possible that Darcy Derrick, who appeared to be constant- ly holding communication with Messrs. Searle and Glyn, might contrive to see any letter she wrote and at once discover the deception that was being practiced upon him. Dorothy felt faint with apprehension at the thought. | “Do you know any one who could do a little writing _ for me, at my dictation, Cresswell?” she asked. “I know it’s of no use asking you, and I feel too weak to sit up yet, or there will be no hope of leaving here.” The daughter of the laundress, who lived in the neigh- boring North End road, was, so Cresswell asserted, a beautiful writer, and she was forthwith dispatched in search of her, while Dorothy lay with closed eyes think- ing over the wording of her appeal. But this particular letter was never fated to be written. Ss (<©) Eomichbdoo