Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

A CONFIDENTIAL TALK. 61 ‘*Circumstances. ’’ Forrest saw that he had run against a blank wall and wisely refrained from butting his head against it, heh he longed to press the question. ‘Upon my word,’’ he remarked, after a short pause, ‘‘I don’t see anything so overwhelming in what you’ve just told me,’’ ‘‘T haven’t finished yet; the worst is to come. You know what a queer composition my governor is? Well, take an- other old recluse just as remarkable, put them together with a single idea imbedded in each of their brains, and imagine what would happen.’’ ‘Somebody would get hurt,’’ suggested Forrest, thought- fully. ‘*Exactly, and I am the unfortunate victim. ”’ **T fail to understand. ”’ “You will as I proceed. My father has an old friend whom he has known intimately since they were boys to- gether, and naturally they are pretty much alike in their opinions. It seems old Clayton married much later in life than my father did, and lost his wife shortly afterward. She left one child, a daughter. This girl, it happens, was taken charge of by an aunt who took her abroad and edu- cated her. <A short time ago old Clayton, feeling that his end could not be so very far off, I suppose, sent for her to come home.’’ “That was natural enough,’’ remarked Forrest. ‘‘Possibly. But the sequel is quite the reverse,’’ declared Arthur. ‘‘No sooner had she reached this side than these two old dolts became imbued with a great and glorious idea. ‘Why,’ they argued, ‘if we have each given to the world a fine specimen of humanity should we not unite CO NNIELOOOKS.GE