Her Faithful Knight — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

22 A Moonlight Walk. on the staff of the Daily Post in London. My duties be- gin about nine p. m. and finish about four a.m. I lodge in Hereford street, am a member of the Wigwam Club, Owe no man anything, have in London no relations and very few friends, and am entirely my own master. Also, I have never been in any sense a gay Lothario, and | wish I had a sister that she might tell you that I reverence women.” Aylmer Read’s tones were deep and mellow, as befitted his large, deep-chested frame. Miss Knight listened to them with a sense of pleasure, and had she been the least vain of women she could scarcely have failed to be touched by the gentle and even tender cadence of his voice as he uttered her name. She let him walk on by her side a few moments, and then said quietly: “Thank you for your frankness, but I am not going to emulate it. No doubt it is absurd for me,” she added, rather bitterly, “to have any conventions left, since I am less than nobody, and very poor. But I used to have parents and friends once, and lived in a great house, sur- rounded by servants and beautiful things to look at, to eat,andto wear. I actually drove daily in a carriage, too. and rode my own horse in the Row. Whereas now I am glad to walk until my omnibus fare is two pence. But I don’t think mine is a singular case in these days when most people live beyond their incomes. Only the chil- dren born with silver spoons in their mouths come to look upon them as their right, and never properly appre- ciate the flavor of pewter.” She had a demure little way of making any remark ap- proaching the humorous that charmed her companion. In spite of her assumed prim coldness there was an in- tense femininity about her that would have made even a plain woman attractive to a man. Her eyes and voice were appealing and sympathetic, even, if her words were COMMICO© “S) (S@)