Mrs. Bob: A Novel — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

162 A FIGHT WITH FORTUNE. friend good-by for the present. ‘Those counterparts of the pages in the book will yet confound the rascals who scheme for the Gordon estate, if they try to work their little game. Arriving at the hotel, he finds Bob absent, and sits down to await his coming, pondering over the odd things that have come to pass in the romantic his- tory of the past few weeks. Strange what a ruminat- ing creature a man becomes, once he gets a good cigar or a beloved pipe between his teeth. Senator John seems to see a picture of the whole past spread out in the wreaths of blue and gray smoke that curl so lazily upward from his weed. Then his eyes fall upon a face he knows, and he comes out of dreamland to stern reality—earth and bother. It is Joe Hooker, and there is a look upon his face that the Senator analyzes for trouble ahead. ““Where’s Bob ?’’ is his first question. ‘‘Out somewhere.”’’ ‘‘Sorry for that. Want to see him the worst kind, and make some new arrangements. ’? ‘““T thought we decided all that last night.’ ‘“‘Ah! Senator, our caucus is overthrown. Fate has knocked us out,’’ says Joe, with a long face. ‘“What! is the old man dead, after all ?’” Hooker shrugs his shoulders in a comical way and says: ‘Really, I could almost wish he were. Instead of that, he is too much alive—in plain Hottentot English, he’s taken French leave.’ ‘‘Gone to his own place at Gordonville?”? ‘Well, it’s rather an open question that will have CEOPNIEClOOKS COMA