Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

114 OCTAVIA'S PRIDE business that [am going. ‘The innuendo of the Wainwright lawyer stung me to the quick. It was the first time my blood fired in this affair. Why, sir, he as good as insinu- ated that you put that vagabond, Mathew Merle, out of the way, because he had the power to say something to hurt your cause. Now you know why I have hated the affair from the commencement. But I can’t stand that. When the honor of the name one bears is aspersed, then it is time for a man to bestir himself. And I am just going to set this thing right.. Mathew Merle shall be hunted up, and unless there is actually wrong on your side, this claim has got to come up again, not to obtain the Wainwright prop- erty, but to right the Middleton name.” ‘“Mathew Merle hunted up,” said Middleton, senior, in a bewildered voice. ‘‘ Felix won’t consent to that.” ‘‘ Felix won’t consent! What do you mean, sir?” de- manded his astonished son. Perhaps Mr. John Middleton became aware that he had already said too much, for he tried to turn the subject. ‘“ Well, well, | am glad to see you waking up about any- thing. What do you intend to do?” ‘Follow up a little clew I have found. The man is over seventy years old, and it will never do to waste time. I know where he stopped, and I found out a rather queer thing about him. Your.vilest old creature has a con- science after all. A lodging-house keeper, in one of these wretched streets near the wharves, tells me this Mathew Merle had a niece who lodged with her—a sweet, innocent creature, to whom he was a cruel tyrant. She tells how the child trembled at the very sound of his voice, and how she was carefully guarded, oftentimes locked for hours in her room, with the key in his pocket, and he away. But that she managed to escape one night, and disappeared—no one knew where. And how the old man stormed and - raved, and went off to search for her. And she has not set ~ comicbooks.co } & ’ ; 7 +a , 4 Haye i ' - ‘ * « - + . j ¢ * . Pato. f nal : r ur, , rh", ‘ i 4 at : . te s* + A : ‘ 4 "2 f4f : p Pe | im * uF ; ; 4 ri i ; way ig het? 9 yg FN. £7 see Wy aS A DY = "See a me Gt elie IL Oe eel ENT A