Beadle's Dime Novels No. 126: Old Jupe — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

CHASING A SITADOW. 63 When the Parcells first came on to San Francisco they were not positive that Bryant was a resident of that city. All they knew of his whereabouts was, that he had told Annette he thought of going to California, and had sailed in a Panama Steamer. After they reached their destination she kept up a constant look-out for him; and one day, when they had been at the hotel about three months, she saw him come in to din- ner. j He was so hollow-cheeked and dull-eyed, with so wild a growth of hair and beard, and was so roughly habited in a miner’s dress, that she had to look twice before being certain it was Luke. She found it out in time to school her face to perfect calmness, so that when he, glancing about, recognized them and came over to greet them, she could successfully hide from her husband and from him, the tumult in her heart. Since that day they had kept up a desultory acquaintance; Bryant was often out of the city weeks at a time, and when in it, did not care too much for the society of the Parcells; the man he had never liked, and Annette recalled to him too vividly scenes and sufferings which were unbearable even in memory. ‘The day following the evening which we have described, Annette put aside her work early in the afternoon, and dress- ed herself with all her old coquetry. Her finery was a, little out of fashion, but no one in that country wasa judge of that; silken robes and shining eyes received their full mede of .ad- miration in a land where women were as scarce as roses in a desert. She braided her splendid black hair, and wound it about her head like a coronet, twisting a scarlet velvet ribbon in the folds. A black silk dress, with a knot of scarlet yelyet at the throat, was so becoming as to make her very nearly beautiful. The lady and her attire formed a strange contrast to the place in which she sat, with the bare floor and dripping walls, the furniture made of rough pine boxes, the strip of canvass which alone divided the bed from the one other apart- ment. Annette had made up her mind that Bryant would call avain that day, to inquire after her health. In truth her ill- ness of the previous day was more than half affected, to excite his compassion and cause him to do something to improve her fortunes. She resolved to complain to Luke of her husband, in the hope that he would reinstate her in the-hotel where she commiclbooks.conn