A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

150 A LADY BACHELOR. do less than introduce her, and she gracefully and nat- urally fell into a chair, and soon she and George were talking as merrily as though they had known each other for years. The other girls were happy also. ‘The fair siren who had ‘‘ done it ’’ so well was merely their em- bassadress. She would seize the first opportunity to intro~ duce ‘‘ we girls.’’ But, alas! she didn’t; she had used ‘‘ we girls;’’ they were her satellites merely for the time being. She had captured her comet; they could wander off into stellar space, for all she cared. It was not long before the handsome George was led away for a cooler seat under the trees; the proximity of ** we girls ’’ might invite an acvidental gratification of their wishes. Well, she did it well, and, like a docile steed, the young man was led to a remote seat under the trees, and there Miss Slender and my hero sat until lunch-time; and a game of tennis was arranged for the afternoon. Miss Slender had played her cards well. Her mother—she who could pose so well— sat upon the balcony all the morning, pretending to join in the talk with the other ladies as she worked on her fancy tidy, and—well, oh, what a world!—her eyes kept wan- dering over to where her skillful daughter played her skillful game, and when one of the ladies made an allusion to the advent of the wealthy and handsome George Edi- cott, she said, with remorseless wickedness: ‘** Oh, yes; he is an acquaintance of my daughter. ”’ The mother was aiding and abetting her scheming child. At length they had encountered a catch who filled the bill of her highest ambition, and wildest anticipations found immediate lodgment in the mother’s mind. Comichooks