Her Faithful Knight — page 268: what you’re looking at

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

264 His Liege Lady. never saw either him or his wife, and knew nothing of my life at Clofield, where he was associated with me. His name was Philip Ransome; he left Clofield for Richmond ‘Surrey, five years ago, married there, and has now been dead three years. He died of heart disease after one year of married life, and his widow, a very handsome woman, whom I only met two or three times, is now, I believe, teaching in Germany. You shall be Mrs. Philip Ran- some. My aunt and cousin will not question you. “T shall tell them I met you in Villiers street, coming up from the country for a few days’ change; that you had been very ill, and that.as you knew no one in town and could not tell where to go, I invited you to stay with us. Mrs. Ransome had been a governess and was not well off. My aunt has heard me speak of her on several occasions. Now that is all settled, and here we are at Baker street, as far as I can see through the fog. Before we arrive at Ashgrove Road you must imperatively change your dress. That heavy mourning will be mentioned in the description of you published in to-morrow’s papers. We must go back to one of those big shops and buy you some- thing different.” He made her stay in the cab while he got out, and, fol- lowing her directions, laid out some money for her in a long, fawn-colored traveling cloak, with three capes, a high collar and deep “highwayman” pockets and cuffs. Even at this critical moment Dorothy’s taste for the pic- turesque in dress did not desert her. Her small, crape- trimmed bonnet and long crape veil she ruthlessly sacri- ficed, on Aylmer’s advice, by dropping them out of the window of the cab as they drove along, and under a wide- brimmed, black straw hat, with steel buckles and black feathers, her face, even in the dim and murky light thrown by street lamps into the cab, looked wonderfully fair and attractive. GComicbooks (E©)