Roxy Hastings — page 200: what you’re looking at

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

ROXY HASTINGS. 191 figs perfect rosebud. She looks as if she were good to eat. And Charley looked as if he could eat her. “Don’t you think,” he continued, for he had not before confided his plot to his sister, and this was, of course, a private conversation, “don’t you think, now, that—that Alf might fancy her, and forget—forget the past?” Laura met her brother’s inquiring gaze with a pleased yet wondering look. ~ After a while, I mean, of course,” he added. ~ Why, yes, after a while. I should think it—possible.” “And we can’t bring them together too soon, and get them interested in each other. Don’t you see 2” Laura saw it, of course. She would second it with all _her heart, but she had a woman’s quick perception, and she . thought she saw an obstacle in the way already, though, of course, she did not point it out.” Of their visit in Philadelphia we need not particularly speak. They stopped at a hotel, for the house had not yet been bought, and Mrs. Hastings still occupied her rooms, which, however, had been made quite stylish with some new furniture. The widow, and Emily, and Tom vied with each other in attention to their guests, the latter insisting on taking Charles around to the store to see his partners, but with more especial reference, it was supposed, to hig seeing the new sign of Gregg, Wilson & Selby, in the largest of gilt letters. On their way back to New York, with their pet between them, Charles and Laura spoke not infrequently of their absent brother, and always with some endearing phrase, or soine compassionate allusion to the sufferings he had gone through in Richmond. When they reached home, and Roxy had become estab- lished on intimate terms with the family, the theme oc- - curred still more frequently. Now there was a letter from “dear Alfred,” and now he was to be written to. This was — Alfred’s favorite book, and that was his pet spaniel. Here was the disguise in which he escaped, all arranged upon a lay figure, and there was the very black ball that he drew in the lottery of death. Roxy could not hear all this without taking an interest in the young lieutenant, nor without some curiosity to see him, which she expressed very naturally, and Charley rubbed his hands and nodded his head to Laura op his mother with a significance which they well understood EComichboo cS (@)