Roxy Hastings — page 209: what you’re looking at

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

200 ROXY HASTINGS and amazement when they were taken to view their fu- ture home. © “We shall not be quite sc cramped here,” he remarked, as he pointed out to his friends the separate rooms ap- pointed for their use, each selected and furnished with di- rect reference to the age and tastes and habits of its future occupant. Yet it was not without some reluctance that they aban- doned their late quiet home to enter upon one which.in- volved the necessity of a return to society—that society from which they had been. so long secluded. Their old friends rapidly found them out in “upper-ten- dom,” and not a few of them were real friends, too, who would not have shunned them in their poverty, if they had known where to find them, or if they had believed their visits would be acceptable. Mrs. Lee retained no ill will. Her conduct, and that of Laura, proclaimed such a general amnesty to recreant friends that they flocked back in troops, and even Mr. Perth had the assurance to renew his acquaintance by a New Year’s call. Mistaking politeness for partiality, the conceited man followed this visit up with others, until it became quite apparent that he was seeking to re-establish himself on his former footing in the family. “He would get quite a different ‘footing’ if he got his deserts,” said the old major to his daughter, when the con- duct of the perfidious beau was discussed, “but if Laura likes him still I suppose it’s all right.” | Some extravagant stories had got into circulation as to the wealth of the Lee family, and its origin, but nothing which in any respect approached the truth. The most cur- rent of these rumors was that the late Mr. Lee had a large interest in a gold mine which had only recently proved productive, and that his widow and three children were each and all immensely rich. | If Isaac Perth had not possessed the most unbounded confidence in his own charms he would not probably have dared to renew his attentions to Miss Lee under such cir- cumstances. But his vanity was inordinate, and had been fostered by much flattery, for, as has been said, he was a man of some fashion, and of good family, paid great atten- tion to dress, and was in short a bit of a coxcomb. _As Laura was beginning to receive considerable atten- tion, Isaac hastened to place himself “ right on the record,” and he was gratified to find how readily the young lady afforded him an opportunity to declare himself. Eomicbooks (elo) MM ‘