The Opposite House: A Novel — page 226: what you’re looking at

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

The Opposite flouse. 221 appreciative friends with a song, in a voice that certainly left much to be desired, but which had been trained by famous teachers in a series of the most expensive lessons, and elicited expressions of rapture on all sides. What did it matter if a false note occurred here and there? Count Raven sang it—and Count Raven was a good match. Marie could never forget her first meeting with this hero of sporting circles. Countess Raven had greeted her at the station, and conducted her to the room assigned for her use. She was expected in the dining-room at the tea hour, and meanwhile a maid, placed at her orders, was unpacking the young lady’s trunks in the next room. Marie went down to the countess’s doudotr before the appointed hour, to spend the time in examin- ing the well-filled book-shelves. She almost started at the sight of a gentleman—a stranger—clad in the most careless attire, who was reclining in a rocking-chair and puffing clouds of smoke through his nose. ‘Pardon me! Come in, cousin!” he called, in a somewhat harsh accent, without changing his atti- tide tn the least. “Excuse my negligee, but Ive just come from some confoundedly tiresome races. My jockey was thrown, and I rode the second heat myself. Zounds! It was tremendously tiresome ! Comiclbook<s C@ 5}