Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

A GOLDEN FUTURE PREDICTED. 151 The elder woman was puzzled. ‘You do not mean to say——”’ she began. ‘IT mean to say that I used Monsieur Bartonni’s name with as great success as though he had actually spent the morning—as I tried to picture to Fabbricotti—on his knees to me. How he would fume, if he knew it! I suppose I told nothing short of lies, but it was rare fun, and I gained my point, with no harm done to any one. You see, Madame Philippe,’’ and she beamed upon her companion, ‘‘when one has to live by one’s wits, one cannot be too parti2ular to keep one’s words as white as the driven snow. I prefer to stick to the truth; of course, it’s better and it’s safer, but I wouldn’t hesitate in a serious case like this, for ex- ample, would you?’’ And the excellent Madame Philippe—this paragon of all the virtues, who had been chosen to guide and guard the footsteps of purs, unsophisticated girlhood, did not hesi- tate as she replied: ‘‘You acted with a wisdom beyond your years, my child, and I repeat, I predict a golden future for you.”’ Gomichookssco im