The Man in Possession — page 229: what you’re looking at

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

224 THE MAN IN POSSESSION. CHAPTER XXII. - A **FRIEND IN NEED.” No doubt the outside world had not altered materially in the space of half-an-hour, but to Tom Rivers, as he rushed into the gas-lit streets and saw the moving figures of men and women passing before his dazed eyes, it seemed as if he was in another universe altogether. The black chaos of his own thoughts engulfed him to the exclusion of everything and every one else. He was enraged at his own folly—he was mad with Kate—he would like to have called out Sir Wilfred, and shot him on the spot. Again and again he cursed the foolish whim that had placed him in so false a position. Again and again those hard, cruel words of the girl he loved rang in his ears, and he heard himself judged and condemned without being able to offer any plea against it. ‘What made me go there to-night?” he thought, as he rushed wildly along, choosing the quiet streets by sheer instinct. Pride, vanity, love—all were wounded almost to the death. He had meant everything to be so dif- ferent . . . had dreamt of knight-errantry—romance —success-—and now one blundering word, one little COMicloe (Sri C(O)