The Wasp, 1918 · page 299 of 330
The Wasp — 1918 — page 299: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page appears to be from a serialized fiction story in *The Wasp* magazine rather than a political cartoon or satire. The narrative concerns "Kitty," a widow who has received diamonds and money, apparently from a man named James Burnham who "turned pirate." The text describes Kitty's moral anxiety over blood-tainted stolen wealth, her relief at Burnham's disappearance, and her decision to nurse a sick gentleman named Willis at an inn called the "Green Dragon," posing as his sister from the country. This reads as melodramatic Victorian-era serialized fiction—the kind of morally complex tale *The Wasp* apparently published alongside its satirical content. Without additional context, the specific literary or social references embedded in this plot remain unclear.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
200. _ THE WASP She more than suspected their history, having heard the rumour, aboard the frigate, that James Burnham had turned pirate. : Theoretically the gleaming coins and glinting stones were red. with innocent blood. She could not see it ; but she knew that Willis would. How was she to benefit by James Burnham’s generosity ? Kitty passed three days and nights in nerve- racking fear and doubt. She spent some of the guineas in food and clothing and the payment of small debts, but she came to no plan of action concerning the diamonds. James Burnham did | not return, to her vast relief. Z On the fourth day of her widowhood Sis sent | to the “Green Dragon” for Willis. The messenger returned with word that the gentle- man was sick of a fever and quite out of his | mind. So Kitty forgot her fear of James Burn- ~ | ham, her worry concerning the precious stones, Be and thought only of the little’surgeon. She took up her abode at the “ Green Dragon,” which was a quiet and respectable inn, far removed from the miserable tenement and street to which she and Stanton had descended, in the é character of the sick gentleman’ s sister. She was ~ from the country, she said. She played the part eomiebooks ‘com