Her Faithful Knight — page 143: what you’re looking at

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

Darcy’s Mother. 139 To Dorothy, who had known but little of a mother’s love, it was deeply touching to note the persistency with which Lady Derrick’s eyes dwelt upon the face of her darling son, whose every movement she watched with lingering tenderness. The whilom beauty had grown fat and shapeless in figure, and her once clear olive tints were now unmistakably sallow ; yet as her large, dark eyes lit with a very passion of maternal love when they rested on her son, it seemed to Dorothy that never in Lady Der- rick’s early bloom could they have appeared more beau- tiful. | Her own position she felt to be sufficiently embarrass- ing. -After lunch Lady Derrick left her son to entertain Mrs. Stourton-Chepe, while she drew Dorothy into the embrasure of a window overlooking the sea and retailed to her numberless anecdotes of her beloved Darcy’s in- fancy and early childhood. “T tell you these things because they interest the women who love him,” she said with a gracious smile. “My poor boy has been grievously misunderstood at home; he and I have been kept apart, and away from my influence, with his romantic and affectionate nature, I have been con- stantly anxious about his future. So you will easily un- derstand my anxiety when his letters became filled with praises of a beautiful young lady whom he declared he loved as he had never loved before.” “Yes,” put in Dorothy, feeling extremely uncomfort- able, as Lady Derrick paused and looked at her archly. “And I said to myself: ‘Here is my dear boy, only just restored to his home, his country and his mother, under the influence of some unknown lady—a professional actress!’ You must pardon me, my dear child, for telling you just the true ideas that came into my mind. Many actresses are honorable and well-bred women, but natu- rally I thought my son, who has only to be seen to be COMIC “S (S@)