The Man in Possession — page 88: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 83 Those are just the things that are always happening. But here, do have some cake or something, Miss O’Brien. You must be tired after yourlong journey.” He bustled about, bringing various delicacies from the tea-table to the low cane lounge where the girl had seated herself. A few women looked enviously at her. They could not have dared face an assemblage of people” fresh from along journey, without some ‘‘ touch up,” some judicious quarter of an hour's retirement; but here was this girl, neither dusty nor untidy, her beautiful burnished hair faultless in its massive coils, her face with its clear skin and faint rose-flush a ‘‘thing of beauty,” and a triumph of nature over art, for once. She threw back her cloak—the gobelin-blue cloak that had won Tom Rivers admiration at their first meeting, and assisted his memory at their second. ‘*I—I am surprised you remember me,” he said, as he glanced at the beautiful face; ‘‘of course, I recognised you by—your cloak.” ‘‘Do men remember dress so well?” she asked. ‘‘I thought they never knew what a woman had on.” ‘‘Oh, I always remember,” he said. ‘‘ Besides,”’ he added, as an afterthought, ‘‘you forget I had a long time to study that cloak before we spoke to each other.” . ‘‘And so your aunt is staying here also,” said Kate, ignoring the allusion to that first interview. ‘“Yes, we came yesterday. Were only going to stay a week in this ‘brilliant circle,’ as the society COMicloe (Sri C(O)