A Fair Fraud — page 181: what you’re looking at

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

170 A Fair Fraud guardians, however well-meaning may be their intentions. ‘As a matter of fact, Mr Naylor and | quarrelled -frightfully at dinner this evening.’ ‘And is that the reason, you naughty child, that you ran away immediately afterwards, and never came into the drawing-room at all ?’ cried Mrs Drury. ‘Qh, you should just have seen that poor man wandering about looking for you, you cruel little thing! It would have melted your heart—it would indeed !’ ‘That poor man, as you call him, aunt, probably was not thinking about me in the least. Mr Naylor does not suggest himself to me as an object for pity at all!’ and Marion hardened her heart into angry antagonism. She said to herself, savagely enough, that Mr Naylor could not possibly have any serious intentions in the matter of her insignificant self. ‘A companion is fair game, I suppose,’ she added aloud bitterly. ‘A companion is a goose!’ replied Mrs Drury, frankly. ‘Do you know that your uncle and Mr Naylor have had a little talk about you this evening, you little donkey ?’ Marion’s eyes opened wide, and her colour rose high. ‘About me?’ she gasped. ‘Do you mean that my uncle— ‘T mean that your uncle, who is the soul GOMMGIOO <S (GO)