Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

40 : THE YOUNG WIDOW CHAPTER V. THE YOUNG WIDOW. Mrs. French’s flat was a very attractive little place, her ‘*nill-box,’’ she called it, but it resembled much more a bon-bon box, with its costly trifles and dainty nothings. The lady herself was an artist in a harum-scarum kind of way; that is to say, she knew at a glance when a thing was expensive and whether it was worth its price, and if it took her fancy, she tried to put herself in possession of it without any more delay than was absolutely necessary. She had been ‘‘around”’ a great deal and always kept her bright eyes open, so the consequence was she had fitted up her apartments in better taste than ninety-nine women out of a hundred, with twice her income, might have done. All her furniture harmonized (although probably each chair in her drawing-room had been bargained for sepa- rately), and nothing in particular struck the eye on enter- ing. There was quite enough to keep you interested, and a person who had a fondness for “‘trumpery,’’ as Mrs. French called it, would have passed a far from tedious ten min- utes while waiting for the owner of it all to appear.: But when she did appear, from that moment your attention was riveted upon her. She seemed a part of the room. She was dainty, smiling, and effusive, always faultlessly gowned, never ruffled in temper, she apparently lived only to please. She was a firm believer in first impressions, was Dolly, and therefore she strove always to be cordial. She never snubbed anybody, not even a book agent or a tax col- lector, and she held out her hand so frankly and prettily CORNIELOOOKS,EO)