Mrs. Bob: A Novel — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

66 BOB PEMBERTON IN THE WRONG ROOM. branches of trees outside, all is still. So he ventures to give vent to a whispered call: ‘‘Tohn, old fellow, where are you ?”’ In answer, a peculiar sound greets him—it is a rasping noise, as of something being drawn over sand paper—something that instantly bursts into a blaze—a match. | Poor Bob holds his breath—the embarrassing na- ture of his position gives him a shock such as he can never remember receiving before. What does he see —well, the blazing match discloses, within fifteen feet of him, the face of Miss Estelle, or, as he knows her now, Josephine Armitage. Sheis dressed in a wrapper, with her hair down her back—she looks almost twenty years younger than in the daytime—a fact Bob can readily understand, after having heard the story of Gypsy Gordon. That face now blazes with mixed emotions—the light of the tiny torch reveals amazenient, contempt, and even deep satisfaction, but not alarm. ‘Thus, for a dozen seconds, these two look at one another. Bob, with a sense of humiliation over the bad break he has, in his stupidity, made, and the spinster with perfect self-control. ‘‘So, it is you, Mr. Pemberton, who, at the hour of midnight——’’ ‘‘Miss Gordon!’ he exclaims. ‘“Creeps into the room of a lady in the style of a burglar. Do you seek my rings, my watch, my jewelry—they all lie yonder on the dresser.” How these bitter words cut. ‘It is a foolish—a ridiculous blunder, Miss Gor- Conniceoooks.conn