Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 316: what you’re looking at

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

MR. PAGE AND HIs WIFE 299 familiarity expressed alike in his countenance and manner, that the sedate merchant knew not whether to consider him drunk or demented. But how different trom the Mr. Page who used to take off his beaver the instant he crossed the threshold, and who was wont to glide noiselessly through the warehouse direct into the private office as 11 he were treading upon eggs! And then that woman, too, with the flaunting dress of a vulgar upstart and the bold looks of a courtesan! What could it all mean? Mr. Hodson knew not; he was bewildered, and, turning toward the porter, who stood gazing open-mouthed upon the pair, he said, in a hollow tone, ‘‘ Ask Mr. Morley to step this way.” “T hope I don’t intrude, Hodson,” exclaimed Page, caressing his chin and speaking in a sort of blandly patroniz- ing tone; ‘ but I thought that as I was in the neighbourhood I might just as well drop in to ask you how you got on, and likewise to tell you, my boy, to look out for another country traveller, as I’ve cut the thing dead. D’ye hear, Hodson? ”’ The merchant had indeed heard; but he could scarcely believe his ears. Was it possible that Page had called him “ Hodson,’’? — plain and simple ‘“ Hodson,” — ay, and twice, too? He was aghast with surprise; and he began to wonder whether the world had suddenly turned upside down, when Mr.Morley came hurrying forth from the countinghouse. ‘Ah! Page —is that you?” cried the junior partner, who was a short, thin, active littl man. ‘ Well, I’m glad to see you're alive and hearty, after all you’ve undergone. But who is this young woman?’ he demanded, his eyes settling suspiciously upon Julia. “This lady, sir,” said Mr. Page, pompously, ‘is my wife. And I am proud and happy to inform you, friend Morley,’’ he added, unbending a little, “ that she has brought me a fortune of twenty thousand pounds.” As he uttered these words, he pressed Julia’s arm slightly with his own, in order to intimate that she need not con- tradict the little lie which his vanity prompted him to tell respecting the amount of her dowry. ‘Twenty thousand pounds!” ejaculated Hodson and Morley, as if it were in the same breath. “ Not a farthing more or less, I can assure you,” said Mr. Page, tapping his cane impressively upon the floor. “Well, I am delighted to hear it, my dear friend,” ex- GOmiicsdoo KS (C©)