Her Faithful Knight — page 232: what you’re looking at

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

228 Good News that Came Too Late. ing me, and I know he would keep his word. He has hunted us down already, and he would do so again. No one has seen my dear Phyllis since last night except Cresswell and Dr. Wentworth. Cresswell will say what I tell her, and Dr. Wentworth knows Phyllis as Mrs. Darcy Derrick. I gave my word to Phyllis long ago that she should be buried as a married woman in her hus- band’s name. This wretch who ruined her life says he will follow his wife’s body to the grave; well, then, he shall do so, and Phyllis shall be buried as Mrs. Darcy Derrick. Afterward, I will instantly leave this place with Cresswell, and we will find very quiet, very cheap, rooms somewhere, anywhere, so that I am not likely to meet that horribly cruel madman who calls himself my hus- band.” This decision in some sort modified the intensity of Dorothy’s grief, as any practical resolve necessarily re- lieves the strain on an essentially active mind. She read Darcy’s letter carefully through a third time, and then proceeded as carefully to destroy it and to wash her fingers after touching anything his hands had touched. Not until after this task did she remember the registered letter to “Miss Dorothea Knight,” for which a receipt had been given in her absence by Phyllis on the preceding evening. 3 The senders were a firm of solicitors, Messrs. Searle & Glyn, and their office address, printed on the notepaper, was in-Buckingham street, Strand. “Madam,” the lawyers wrote. “In pursuance of our desire to carry out the testamentary intentions of our late client, Mrs. Julius Knight, of 37 Belvedere Gardens, Hyde Park, we have recently inserted advertisements in the London papers with a view to obtaining your ad- dress. This, however, we failed to do until yesterday, when a gentleman, who gave his name as the Hon. Darcy Eomichbooks (GC)