The Man in Possession — page 269: what you’re looking at

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

264 THE MAN IN POSSESSION. affair that was full of promising complications. The lady is a friend of mine; the gentleman turns out to be a friend of—yours ; Isn't it admirable ? ”’ He tugged his moustache and looked at her doubt- fully. ‘‘Is that really so? Was your interest in the young man purely impersonal?” ‘“‘Of course. Why shouldn't it be? You didn’t think I had fallen in love with him myself?” she said, laughing. ‘‘ What is there so unlikely about your doing so? He is considered attractive, I believe.” ‘“Now, Colonel,” she said gravely, ‘‘you are speaking in an altogether unfriendly and disagreeable way. And I don't like it, for I want your help and I mean to have it. When you see the girl, you won’t wonder at myenthusiasm. She is absolutely charm- ing and lovable, and she has hada most unhappy life—which she is foolishly bent on continuing by an equally unhappy marriage.” Her voice grew softer. She did not look at him now, but at the pages she was idly turning, seeing nothing of their contents. ‘‘I feel too much sym- pathy for—any one—who is condemned to such a sacrifice, not to try and aid them if it is any way possible,” she went on slowly. ‘‘Surely you might understand that? ” He looked at her quietly, as if reflecting on what her words suggested—as if they had carried him back to the past, and had more power to move him by that fact than by their present attitude. ‘‘Were you so very—unhappy?” he said at last. ‘You concealed it very admirably.” COMicloe (Sri C(O)