The Widowed Bride — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

oes ‘THE WIDOWED BRIDE. CHAPTER VII. WYKENHAM REFUGE. Rena and Alice Mordaunt had been sitting in the dreary anteroom of the London police-court somewhat more than an hour, although the time appeared infinitely longer to them, when they were once more summoned into Sir John Lavely’s presence. : “Well, my little girls,” said the magistrate, kindly, ‘‘1 have concluded to send you——” 3 "Not to prison, sir!” gasped Rena, as he paused an in- stant, and Alice fixed her blue eyes eagerly on the wrinkled face. | | “No, not to prison—because I really don’t think you have ~ wittingly done anything to deserve such a fate as that—but to the Wykenham Refuge.” “What's that, sir?’ asked Rena, innocently. ‘‘Well, it’s a place that is provided for just such as you— homeless little girls, my dear. You’ll be well provided and cared for, and I know a kind lady who will keep her eye on you. Shall you like that?” “I'd rather go away, sir,” said Rena, frankly. “I dare say,” said Sir John, rubbing his nose and smil- ing; ‘‘but that isn’t advisable under the circumstances.” ‘‘Alice must go too.” “Yes, Alice shall go too,” nodded Sir John, kindly. ‘‘We won't have you separated—at present at least.” He spoke a word or two to an attendant, in a low voice, patted the children’s heads, and bade them “‘good-by and _ good-speed,” and presently they found themselves in a curi- ous sort of vehicle, curtained all around, and totally desti- tute of springs, jolting along the London streets. The Wykenham Refuge for Homeless and Destitute Girls was a huge, red brick building, sprinkled irregularly with shutterless windows, which seemed to wink like innumer- | able eyes in the level sunshine, and situated in one of the least inviting of the suburbs of London. Of foliage or © shrubbery there was absolutely none—the very grass, where _ — — ~ - . “= < > S. - — — i _ 7 + git . tee, eS = - 75 = 4 , —- —_— - ~~, »~ . «= o- © — ~ _—.