A Fair Fraud — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

A Fair Fraud 165 tages of Belgravia and Mayfair, so that he had had no idea that her circumstances were strait- ened or that there were any money troubles in her life. Gratitude to Mrs Lane still rendered him devoted to the elder of the two ladies. He took them to a theatre, and gave them supper at the Savoy one evening, and a man to whom he introduced them had, he remem- bered, asked who they were. Where had he picked up Mrs Lane? Who was she? And Captain Drury had answered in perfect good faith that Mrs Lane was the widow of an official of high standing in the Indian Civil Service, which was what Mrs Lane had told him herself, and what he implicitly be- lieved. He also mentioned that the two ladies had lived a good deal abroad, and were well _ known in society, both in Paris and Vienna. For some time Kenneth had continued almost as much in love with the fascinating mother as with her more beautiful daughter, but Mrs Lane had been quite aware of this, and had very dexterously managed to divert ‘his atten- tion from herself to her child, so that after a while he had fallen in love in earnest with Hester; and his passion for her had been fully developed when he had conceived the brilliant and loverlike idea of bringing her to stay in his father’s house. Here his infatuation had increased by leaps COMNMUC JOO (GO) uu <S