Roxy Hastings — page 145: what you’re looking at

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

136 ROXY HASTINGS. implied anything but a wish that he should comply with the invitation. It was the fourth day after Lucy’s hegira, and her father’s face plainly showed the effects of his wrath and anxiety, but poor Alf put it all down to vexation at his call, and he thought he saw plainly enough that Miss Hol- den was to be denied to him. The stern man ignored all the adventures and perils of the young soldier, who, of course, made no allusion to them himself. | To his inquiries after the ladies, Mark replied : “They are all engaged or out this evening, Mr. Lee. You will have to excuse them.” “Ah!—I am sorry. My respects to them, if you please,” said Alfred, rising to go. ‘“You know, I suppose, that we are on the eve of an im- portant event here,” said the other, who was then still san- guine of recovering his daughter, ‘““and—and—the ladies do not have much leisure.” . “Yes—I understand, sir. Good-evening.” | ‘‘Good-evening,” said the bear; and Alfred went off, more down-hearted than ever. His wrath against old Holden was unbounded. He went home, trying to subdue his grief and to appear cheerful before his friends, and resolved to make no fur- ther effort to see Lucy. But three days afterward he saw the advertisement which proclaimed her flight and offered a large reward for her restoration to her friends, and then all his feelings changed. New hope took possession of his mind, and new love, which, with pity for her sufferings and fear for her safety, plunged him into a vortex of intense excitement. He at once gave himself vigorously to the work of look- ing for her—both in person and by agents. He employed detectives—he advertised in the ‘‘personal” columns of the papers, over the signature ‘‘Alfred L.,” imploring her to give him some clew to her retreat. . For a few days he was sanguine of success, but when weeks had passed without bringing any response to these appeals, his heart misgave him, and he indulged in the most gloomy forebodings. | The Holden advertisement had spoken of the missing girl as having “wandered from home during a slight aberration of mind, resulting from sickness,” and the newspaper articles which from time to time appeared on Eomicbooks.co