The Dugdale Millions — page 278: what you’re looking at

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

268 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. be sacrificed unless some other source of revenue can be obtained. So, when Mr. Dugdale died, and it was believed by the solicitor that the estate would pass into the hands of a young girl who would have no wish to conduct, or continue the wool business, it was pro- posed, by that solicitor, that I should proceed imme- diately to America with an offer from my father to purchase as large an interest in that business as the duke could buy, and that I should begin a career as a woo] merchant. When I reached here I found that Mr. Hetlow was engaged ina search for the son of Edmund Dugdale, with a prospect of finding him, who, if found, would become the heir. Because of this Mr. Hetlow said 1t would be useless to consider the duke’s proposition, and he. kindly invited me to remain here a guest, until such time as this search might result in something definite. ’ Wallis was covered with confusion. All her anger and indignation faded away as she realized how they had all been misled. ‘“What a lot of fools we have all been,’’ she ex- claimed. The young nobleman laughed aloud at her confu- sion, enjoying the joke hugely, now that he appre- ciated from Wallis’s words how his errand to America had been misapprehended. ‘*Miss Hetlow would indeed be inducement for any man to cross the water as her suitor,’’ he said. ‘“‘But as attractive as she may be, there is one who is still more attractive to me.” Wallis’s cheeks were covered with blushes. The spirit with which she had faced the young Englishman had fled, and she was seeking somewhere to place her eyes where they would not encounter those dark kindly ones of Merrimount resolutely determined to find hers. ‘*Well,’’ he went on, after a moment or two, “‘have f not earned the right to say these things to you?”’ Wallis could not reply. All her readiness was gone. For a brief and insane moment, she contemplated a Comicbooks.€© 3