Her Faithful Knight — page 283: what you’re looking at

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

Dorothy’s Confession. 279 “Hanging’s too good for people like that,” she asserted. “Fancy killing your own sister—and just for money!” “But they’re not sure of it, yet.” “They will be when they dig her up, and find the poi- son. They do find poisons in dead bodies, you know, mamma. You remember the Wickworth case? I sup- pose they won’t hang the women even if they catch them, will they? They never do hang women now.: I couldn’t commit a murder. One would feel so dreadful in the dark. But think of those horrible women being at large!” Aylmer could endure it no longer. “Mrs. Ransome,” he said, suddenly entering the draw- ing room, and standing in front of Dorothy while he spoke, in order to hide her face from the other occupants of the room, “‘you haven’t seen my study yet. I know you are interested in me tace, and I have two capital artists’ proofs to show you.’ She looked up at him with a white, grateful face. She was glad to take the hand he offered to assist her to rise, for she was trembling from head to foot, and incapable of making any set conventional speeches. Noting this, he talked on, scarcely conscious of what he said, about etchings and engravings and various art processes, until they had left the drawing room, and cross- ing the hall, had entered his own particular sanctum, a tiny study, papered in red and paneled with oak, the walls hung with etchings, and the furniture consisting of two armchairs, one on each side of the fireplace, a writing desk and seat, a bookcase, a newspaper rack, a waste-paper basket, and many brackets for pipes. Carefully shutting the door, he led Dorothy to one of the armchairs by the fire. But she was far too much ex- cited to sit down. “Did you hear what they read and what they said about COoORmic loc) S (E() im