A Fair Fraud — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

94 A Fair Fraud spective rooms, the host and hostess found themselves tovether alone at last in the seclusion of their conjugal chamber, ‘My dear John,’ then said Mrs Drury solemnly to her husband, ‘a most extra- ordinary thing has happened.’ ‘What may that be, Fanny?’ ‘Why, this friend of Ken’s—this Mr Naylor, whom he thinks so much of—simply devoted himself to our little Marion the whole evening.’ ‘Bless my soul! You don’t mean to say 50?’ ‘I do indeed. Of course, I never supposed he would even take the trouble to speak to her at dinner; in fact, I apologised to him for send- ing her in with him. What could he find to say to the poor little thing? Such a clever man as he is, and getting on so well at the Bar. But I saw him talking to her at dinner, and I just put it down to his good nature, and thought nothing of it. But afterwards, when you gentlemen came into the drawing-room, I looked about to see who I could introduce him to who would be likely to amuse him, and I thought Lady Mary Girton would be just the very woman he would like, when, to my great surprise, I saw him established comfort- ably at the piano talking to Marion again. I really was never so much surprised in my life. It couldn’t be a love of music, you know, bé- cause she does not play at all remarkably.’ GOMMGIOO <S (GO)