Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

43 THE YOUNG WIDOW. But no, there was no one, the two women were alone, quite alone. Dolly had something of the feeling of a mouse at the mercy of ahungry cat. At last she straightened up and asked in a heroic tone: ‘‘Would you have me betray confidence, Miss Delmar?”’ ‘‘In this case, yes. It would be doing a service.”’ ‘‘Ah, I had forgotten you are a Catholic,’ uttered Dolly, ~ with a suspicion of a sneer, ‘‘and such things are counte- nanced in your religion. ’’ ‘‘Let us keep to the matter in hand, please,’’ said Rose, quietly, ‘‘or you may get beyond your depth. ’’ Dolly was exceedingly uncomfortable. She had a vague impression that this young woman was determined to gain her point in spite of all she could do. Worse still, her con- science pricked her; so she decided to give in, if she must, but not without one last struggle. ‘‘I may, perhaps be able to give you the information you ask for, Miss Delmar,’’ she said, after a pause, ‘‘but I can assure you, you will not relish hearing it.’’ ‘That is my affair.’’ ‘Still, as you insist, perhaps it is my duty to tell you about a letter I got from Florence the day after she left home. Mind you,’’ she went on, raising her hand, ‘‘she did not come here nor have I seen her since, and her running away was almost as great a shock to meas it could have been to you.’’ ‘‘Go on!’’ Rose grew paler. ‘“Well,’” resumed Dolly, clasping her knee with her hands ‘‘You know, I presume, of her love-affair with Ar- thur Eldridge?’’ Rose nodded. She could not trust herself to speak. ‘I thought it a desirable match for both of them,”’ she COMCOOO<S.COhm