Roxy Hastings — page 162: what you’re looking at

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

ROXY HASTINGS. | 153 ‘And we sha’n’t want the Nyack house.” “ Nor have to give security.” “I thought it was strange you should come here.” “How rich is he?” “Do you really like him ?” “What shall we have to call him ?” *‘T hope he ain’t cross ?” ae I wish we could have the house and money without 1m.” “Netty, you impertinent puss! How often shall I have to warn you to put a check on your tongue ?” “Tam dumb, mamma.” Such was a part of the conversation which followed this disclosure. The excitement ran high for the rest of the way, and in the evening the widow informed Mr. Burr that she had let her daughters into the secret, but that it would be allowed to spread no further. CHAPTER XXX. A MYSTERIOUS EPISTLE. We must now return to Charles Lee, whose fortune had attained such colossal proportions as to quite oppress him at times with a sense of its magnitude. Oil was to him what the lamp was to Aladdin, and while he hesitated to sell any of his shares in the great com- pany, its stock continued to risein the market, until it would bear a second ‘‘ watering.” ; The stockholders were counted by hundreds, the board of directors comprised many of the heaviest capitalists in the city ; new wells were constantly going down, and new rivers of oil were spouting up. Yet through all this the owner of one-half of this vast property successfully preserved his incognito by the aid of his friend, Ogilvie, in whose name his shares stood upon the books of the company, while the certificates were in Lee’s hands, together with powers to transfer, executed in blank. | But after the second dilution of stock, which still came nimbly up to par, rising like the flowing liquid it repre- sented, Charles sold out half his shares, and invested the proceeds, amounting to several millions, in government bonds. GComicboo cS (Ee)