Her Faithful Knight — page 332: what you’re looking at

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

328 Darcy Finds His Wife. unopened doors of the police court, a chapel-like edifice situated in a sordid side street within a few seconds’ walk of the main road, among the usual crowd of dirty, be- draggled looking women in hats with broken feathers, every third woman carrying a dirtier, short-coated, pallid baby in a torn plush cape, the typical personages who in- variably congregate at such times and places. The court was not large, and as they all waited in the rain, many chance speculators drawn by curiosity con- cerning the much-discussed case, joined the crowd by twos and threes, under dripping umbrellas. Aylmer had left no stone unturned during the past twenty-four hours by which he could further Dorothy’s interests, and had secured in her defense one of the ablest advocates in London, to whom he had on the previous day confided the true facts of the case. As to Rosa, she had begged so hard to be allowed to accompany. him to the court that Aylmer had not the heart to refuse her, the more so as he had seen the truth of her argument. “Dolly will like a woman friend to be near her. You know she almost said so yesterday.” Flushed and excited, Rosa’s pretty face looked prettier than ever under her jaunty, crape-trimmed hat as she waited before the court by Aylmer’s side, and her ‘mur- mured talk about “dear Dolly” appeared to attract the attention of a handsome, surly-looking young man who stood near, and who, with themselves, constituted the well-dressed portion of the crowd on the steps just be- yond the closed doors of the building. Even in her genuine sympathy and liking for Dorothy Rosa was pleasantly conscious that she was exciting the attentio:: of a man in the person of this stranger, of me- dium height and thick-set, deep-chested figure, who, al- though he lacked the effeminate beauty of Darcy Derrick, possessed undeniable claims to good looks in his well- CoOMmicdoolks (C@