Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG WIDOW. 49 continued, ‘‘excellent, and I’m honest enough to say that I threw them together as much as possible. He became awfully infatuated—quite lost his head over her and she apparently reciprocated. All was going as merrily as a marriage-bell, when suddenly something unpleasant hap- pened between them, and he never called again. ’’ ‘‘I know all this,’’ said Rose, in a low voice, ‘‘but what happened? You ought to know.”’ Dolly shrugged her shoulders and looked away. ‘Neither of them thought me worthy of confidence, evi- dently, so I cannot answer you.”’ ‘*Do you mean to say Florence did not tell you about it?’’ asked Rose, incredulously. ‘‘T do,’’ asserted Dolly. ‘‘She got gloomy and moody and the first thing I knew, she packed up and went home, to my disgust, without making it up with Arthur. And be- tween you and me, Miss Delmar, she made an out-and-out idiot of herself, for Arthur Eldridge is the best catch in town.”’ Rose vouchsafed no answer to this interesting bit of in- formation. ‘‘You know what came next,’’ resumed Dolly, slowly, ‘‘better than I do. When she reached Wallford she moped some more, I suppose. At least the two letters I got from her were blue enough. ’’ “Two!l’’? repeated Rose. ‘‘Why, she was writing all the time. ”’ ‘‘Maybe, but not to me. Then, last Tuesday, I got another letter from her, written on board the steamer Etruria.’’ ‘She has gone to Europe?’’ gasped Rose, leaning for- ward. EComichbooks (C©)