A Fair Fraud — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

36 A Fair. Fraud almost impossible that they could be mother and daughter. Asa matter of fact, Hetty was only twenty, but a precocious training in the ways of the world had given her the manner and self-possession of a woman of twenty-six, whilst Mrs Lane was in reality just forty, but by dint of art and a splendid constitution she managed to look ten years younger. She still further kept up the delusion of her youthfulness by always dressing. exactly like her daughter, so that there was no exaggeration in the frequent compliments she received upon her juvenile appearance. She was always told that she looked like her child’s sister—‘ twin sisters’ some people said, but that was possibly going a little too far. Marion was young enough to be an enthusiastic admirer of beauty, and although there was a distinct feeling of mistrust in her mind against them, she could not take her eyes off these two beautiful women, with their tall, slim-waisted figures, their wealth of golden hair and their exquisite pink and white complexions. She | noticed, indeed, that the carmine on Mrs Lane’s cheeks was even more brilliant than on her daughter's, and when she timidly asked her if she took sugar in her tea, and Mrs Lane smiled a ‘Two lumps, please,’ in her direction, she was immensely struck by the rose-red colour of her lips, contrasting vividly as they GOMMGIOO