The Man in Possession — page 93: what you’re looking at

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

88 LHE MAN IN POSSESSION. CHAPTEP. X. ANTAGONISM. Kate descended to the drawing-room with unusual trepidation. The idea of meeting ‘‘all those women,” of standing under the fire of criticising eyes in her simple home-made gown, was not an idea that in- spired her with confidence. It was all very well for her glass to show her those fair tints of red and white, that burnished hair, and graceful sve/fe young figure, outlined so exquisitely by soft folds of daffodil satin, but the mirror was not feminine and antagonistic. She knew she was looked upon as a rival by the - ambitious matrons and daughters, to whom Croft rep- resented a matrimonial hunting-ground. The little she had seen of society had taught her how shallow a thing is its politeness, how sharp a moral frost its atmosphere can develop for an outsider. ‘¢But why should I care, after all?” she reflected, as she took her way down the broad and richly carpeted staircase. ‘‘I shall not interfere with their plans. Sir Wilfred is even worse than I anticipated.” } She would have been surprised had she known that the genial young baronet had put in an appear- ance at his mother’s dressing-room door, and after COMicloe (Sri C(O)