Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

THE FLIGHT AND THE PURSUIT 11 Still there was something strange and mysterious in the eold and haughty silence which the gentleman preserved; for the travellers’ room at a commercial inn was a place ' whence frigid ceremony was banished, and where the for- mality of an introduction was not regarded as a necessary preliminary to conversation. As these reflections passed through the mind of Mr. Page, he suddenly recollected that the stranger had made an ob- servation when he first entered the apartment, — an obser- vation, too, that was at least contemptuous, if not abso- lutely rude. ‘“‘ I should think not, indeed! ’’ was the remark that had fallen from the gentleman’s lips; and it was in reference to certain words which Page was uttering at the time. The commercial traveller accordingly resolved upon mak- ing an attempt to draw the stranger into conversation, and, with a short prefatory cough, he said, “‘ A very cold evening, sir.” ‘Very,’ was the laconic answer; and the gentleman moved half-around in his seat — not absolutely turning his back upon Mr. Page, but Just giving him so much of the cold shoulder as to intimate pretty plainly that he did not wish to enter into conversation with him. The bagman bit his lip; then, suddenly mustering up all his courage, he rose |from his chair, approached the table at which the gentleman was seated, and, looking him fully in the face, said: ‘| beg your pardon, sir — but have I not had the pleas- ure of seeing you before? ”’ ‘““ Nothing is more probable, sir,” answered the gentleman, in a haughty tone, and with knitting brows; ‘‘ but I should imagine that the mere fact of my presence here would of itself indicate my desire to remain unnoticed and unrecog- nized.’’ “I should think so, too,” ejaculated Page, with an abrupt- ness that perfectly astounded the gentleman. “ The first moment you entered the room, a suspicion of who you were flashed to my mind — and now your own words have ban- ished all my doubts.” The stranger had risen indignantly from his seat in the midst of these observations, to which he seemed prepared to give some cutting reply; but Page, having thus hastily GOmicdooks (C©)