A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

8 A LADY BACHELOR. velous, and my little heroine was soon the recipient of many attentions, which she received quietly and with grace; but i could see that there was a sort of fearfalness, @ timidity, which her ease and self-possession did not sug- gest. J will go further. ‘There appeared a certain expres- sion 1 could not interpret; I tried to account for it, and sought to down the suspicions that rose in my mind, but, alas! I was compelled to accept the testimony of my keen perceptions as the basis of the timidity and fearfulness I had observed. Several days passed, and my little study became the heroine of every incident in the pleasure life of the hotel. Continued observation suggested a mystery 1 had not pierced; a shadow of something impending. The suggestion came from her manner in little indices, I think, that I alone discerned—I was so keen a reader, so constant an observer. Well, the dénowement came—came in an unexpected manner—came suddenly; and, with all my expertness, lL had not gathered the slightest intimation of the real ex- planation of certain indications that had been the founda- tion of my conclusion that there was a something to be explained in her demeanor. The truth came like a thun- der-bolt; its effect seemed almost incredible, but I read again a phase in human nature that I had often read be- fore, and witnessed how cruel society can be on ever so slight a provocation. There arrived at the hotel an eagle-faced woman, with two round-faced, red-cheeked daughters. . I was present when this socia] vulture first beheld her prey, and I saw —! Eomicbooks; (E)