Beautiful but Poor — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

ad * — ab PF wt pe des” r = ve; es Ae Fa = 2, a” ae _ le Te id — ae AP te Foe 7) 2 * Chae Bee ee el ee ae = +) Tt ale 7 a1 "ley 6 a. = =m! 94 y - <>. Pe ‘ Sle a 4. re ee Me As ik ee a Ee # eZ i= ey : . ee a }! 4 bal meee 7% = . ~~ “ ~~ Y,~)-eha mn ss. ™ SF © - thug 3 r - 3 { . e { e. \ a. ~ was we. vn rae Fed 92 ee referee ee st eg oe “Ser | . EAE, ete | ae 1 we - ‘ ss - ~~ BEAUTIFUL BUT POOR. Sepals y: But this could not be done. The seal must be broken, or the end of the envelope cut. Miss Scrimp | hesitated before acting on either of these ideas. She had heard of a penalty attached to the crime of opening another person’s letter. She didn’t care a pin for the crime, but she did care for the penalty. She was like the penton thief. He was sorry to be caught stealing. ‘*] must know what is in this letter!’’ she mut- tered. ‘‘I can’t understand that girl. And she will never tell me anything. There’s a mystery about her, and for the life of me I can’t get at the bottom of it. But I will—I will, if I die for it. Jess will never dare tell her about this letter. I’d skin her alive if she did. I’ll open it, and know who she has got in Californy, and what he wants.’’ With a desperate twitch she ran her dirty thumb- nail under the crease of the envelope, near the end of the letter, tore it open, and took out a half sheet of note-paper. It had neither date nor place of dating at its head. The letter was composed of but two lines. - She read them over aloud: “My darling, every pledge is kept. Wealth is gained. Let me come to you! There was no signature—not a clew. The hand. writing was elegant, but even the sex of the writer could not be determined by that. If ever a woman was madly disappointed, that woman was Miss Scrimp. - Literally she had run all her risk for nothing. And her curiosity now was excited a thousand fold. What pledges had been kept by the one who dare call Hattie Butler darling? Wealth had been »-comicboo (ele) CS