Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

¥ TZ | OCTAVIA’S PRIDE. There were melancholy and bitterness both in her lady- ship’s voice. ‘“How very strange and unlike other practitioners, Miss Wainwright. ID ~ € Arthur Morley is unlike all other men,” returned Seat - Falkner; ‘‘ nobler, truer, worthier every way, and yet— she aaget. the words slowly and drearily—‘‘ more unhappy and unfortunate than all others.” There was a moment’s silence. Miss Wainwright refrained from breaking it, for she saw the dreamy, abstracted look on the fair aristocratic face of her hostess. The latter rose suddenly. ‘But I must not give Ronald opportunity to reproach me for not allowing him a moment’s speech with you. He. will wish to speak with you, though it is only to say a Single word.” She took a card from the silver tray, penciled a few lines upon it, and rang the bell. ‘‘Give it to the butler, and tell him to hand it to Lord Ronald at the table,” she commanded. Octavia Wainwright made a dissenting gesture, but seemed to repent the moment. after, for no words came from her lips. She had met Lord Ronald Falkner at the aristocratic gatherings of the past season, and though his rank and family were so much above her own, she had not failed to discover that he was strongly attached to whatever group she had chanced to join. _ Lady Mary had taken unusual pains, besides, to be kind and friendly. Miss Wainwright was not too dull to guess that the Wainwright fortune, added to hér own grace and beauty, would amply atone for the deficiency of rank, and that her ladyship would warmly welcome her as a daughter- in-law, thus making herself secure of any worse mesalliance, a] sald comicbooks. com