Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

30 OCTAVIA’S PRIDE erty they have possessed all their lives, a feeble old man and a delicate, refined young lady? Ii my mother were alive, or we had sisters, it would be different. There would seem to be then some show of justice. But for three men like you, and Felix, and myself, I confess I can’t make it seem any- thing but abominable.” | ‘Foolish boy! Won’t you and Felix marry? And then where is the fine fortune you will need to come from?” The clear, ingenuous face sparkled over with a mis- chievous smile, and the manly shoulders were shrugged 1m- patietly. ‘Time enough to think of that, father, Wage Rear énd I have received hint of such a destiny.” ‘“And you would let this great fortune, which was my father’s right, slip away from us? I have no patience with you, Maurice. It is time you threw aside these absurd dreams of yours and became a practical man, alive to the duties of the day and hour. I shall no longer humor your vagaries. You must be more of a man, or I shall dis- own you.” | ‘Disinherit me from this Wainwright fortune, you mean? Upon my soul, I am willing.” $ “Thank Heaven, Felix has some sense! You do not find Felix talking in this fashion. “ He urges me to bring for- ward all possible convincing testimony.” ‘¢Why don’t Felix come and attend .to the business him- self? I’msure I don’t understand his movements at all. ‘He has never taken us to his residence or his place of busi- ness since we have arrived in town. We know nothing whatever of his movements, and when he comes to us, I de- clare it seems to me he is all the time afraid he will be seen by some one. I must own, father, that these three years of absence have not improved Felix, according to my mind. He looks like a man about something of which he is ashamed.” -comicbooks.co