His Other Wife: A Novel — page 367: what you’re looking at

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

LEDA’S HOST. 359 It became his painful duty to examine into his former partner's connection with the estate of Leda’s mother, and to discover how shamefully it had been embezzled by the arts of the unscrupulous villain to whose management it had been intrusted. But, by dint of an honorable decep- tion, he was able to make it appear that Leda was the pos- sessor of a few thousands, which were placed at her credit in the bank of the State. It is needless to inform the reader that this deposit was made from the private fortune, small as it was, of the self- appointed guardian of her interests, Gordon Warren. When he had finally effected this arrangement, he de- sired his mother to request their guest to be brought to him for a moment into the little library. Placing in Leda’s hand a paper, he said: ‘In this document you will find, my friend, a state- ment of the trifling remnant which remains of your dear mother’s estate, and which has been placed at your dis- posal in a bank deposit subject to your instructions. I need not add that I have been happy to render you this small service, nor that in all things I am ro to aid and care for you as if you were my own dear sister. ” Light and swift as the accentuation on the last word was, it caused Leda’s cheek to glow hotly; but her eyes were sad and supplicating when she raised them from the paper which Warren had given her, to let them rest full upon his noble face. She seemed hardly able to speak. Her lips murmured (E(o) GEomicbooks: