The Man in Possession — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 7 her long fur-lined cloak of Gobelin blue cloth, and her graceful figure in its well-fitting dark tweed dress looked quite in harmony with her surroundings. The woman who contrives to be dressed in such harmony is always well dressed, at least to male eyes, and we may suppose they have some right to be judges. The young man was—perhaps like many other young men—not bad-looking and not very strikingly handsome, rather tall, very well dressed, and decided- lyagentleman. For fifteen minutes they had sat op- posite each other with the conventional English propriety that demands no unintroduced persons of opposite sex shall on any plea or account whatever address a word to one another. I believe there are exceptional circumstances, such as a railway accident or a fire, under which Mrs. Grundy does permit the verbal exchange of sentiments or sensations, but even then the acquaintance must proceed no further than the duration of the accident requires. It is not to be considered precedent for acquaintance or in- timacy, unless satisfactory patents of respectability on both sides can be produced ‘‘ on demand.” The girl began to grow restless ; she almost wished that her companion would not be so aggravatingly calm and composed. She speculated as to who he could be waiting for. A mother, sister, maiden aunt? Something feminine and helpless no doubt. She might have been surprised had she known that he was speculating in exactly the same manner about herself. ‘‘Strong-minded, I’m sure,” ran his reflec- tions. ‘‘No girl has that steady, fearless look and COMicloe