The Man in Possession — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 137 CHAPTER XV. A QUARREL. In a moment the supper-room was a scene of con- fusion. Women screamed and men rushed forward. Kate alone.stood white and calm, though her breath came quickly as she surveyed the prostrate baronet. Tom Rivers had simply knocked him down like a feeble ninepin. | The blow and the shock seemed to have completely sobered him, for when he was assisted to a chair he kept on murmuring apologies and explanations, and assuring the frightened women who crowded round him that it was all right and all his fault, and that Rivers was a ‘‘doosid plucky fellow.” All of which information did not throw much light on the cause of the quarrel. As for Tom, he wiped his face and shirt-front, and then pushing the table aside said in a low voice, “Now, Miss O’Brien, come away from here.” Kate was only too thankful to leave the scene of confusion, and took her young champion’s arm just as Lady Jocelyn and Cornelius O’Brien appeared in the door- way of the supper-room. ‘<I’m sorry I lost my temper,” said Tom quietly, as they walked along. ‘‘I ought to have remembered COMicloe (Sri C(O)