Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

58 OCTAVIA’S PRIDE. them, not even for an hour of conviviality? Had the man actually no tenderness or cheeriness in his nature? Were his nerves steel-strung, as well as those wiry sinews of the muscular arm, which never quivered or faltered in the most harrowing cases which came under his surgical skill? Did he never need recreation or relaxation? | This was a question often asked by the jovial, pleasure- loving dignitaries, who would fain have lured Doctor Mor- ley’s keen mind to have contributed its brilliant repartee and jest over their festive boards. But Doctor Morley was proof against their enticements. When his hours of work were over, he went to his dark, chilling house, walked gravely and soberly up the dingy steps, and vanished from the view of outsiders. It is pleasant to know there was really a cheery home side to the experience of this man, who was truly a philanthro- pist in the most unselfish sense of the word. Scarcely ever had his key clicked in the lock, and the door unclosed, than a step firm and steady, but light, advanced from the corri- dor above, and a moment after a young woman, in the very plainest of attire, with a clear, steady, hazel eye, and a fresh, healthy.complexion, came quietly to his side. ‘“'The coffee is ready, sir, and the papers are in from the mail,” she would Bay, her face all aglow with some inward gladness. And Doctor Morley would nod back, and a sympathetic smile brighten over the grave, sallow face. ‘Then I will go out into the garden at once, Jenny Wren, and do you come out with your knitting, for I have something to tell you about poor Bob Jardeneer.” And the doctor walked through the house into the garden in the rear, a cozy retreat cut off from the observation of the street, or no one there would have pronounced Doctor Morley’s house cheerless and dreary; for all the gloom and . grimness at the front of the mansion was atoned for here, ~ comicbooks.co nm