A Fair Fraud — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

2 A Fair Fraud timid! She had never mounted even an old pony in her life—far less a hunter! She was secretly frightened of horses in fact, even when securely fastened up in their stables, and she was woefully ignorant about them, for she had been known to allude to the equine deity as ‘Ic!’ ‘Will it kick ?’ she had been heard to inquire apprehensively. Or, if strung up by the ex- ample of others into an unwonted enthusiasm over some two-hundred-guinea animal, her ad- miration would evolve itself into some such remark as this, ‘It has got a very pretty tail, hasn't it? and such nice kind eyes!’ So that it is clear that Miss Blake was no horsewoman, and it ought not to have mattered one jot to her whether there was hunting or no. Whereas it did matter very much indeed—in fact, it made all the difference in the world to her. For when the weather was open enough for hunting, Captaii Kenneth Drury was in the habit of coming down to Crookthorpe Hall to stay with his father and mother, whereas if it was not, he remained up in London. And when he remained up in London life was an empty blank—a dull and meaningless void to poor Marion Blake! Yes, I say foor Marion Blake advisedly. For people who delude themselves into an Goo oO C' Q)