The Man in Possession — page 250: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 245 He hated writing letters—indeed, as a rule he let his valet do his correspondence for him—but he had hit upon the idea of ‘‘ wiring” to Kate on every possible excuse. It showed how faithful was his memory, and laid all the blame of misspelt words on ignorant post-office officials. He was charmed with the ingenuity of this idea, a gratification, however, that was not shared by Biddy, who was perpetually being summoned from the lower or extreme upper regions of the house to answer the imperative ‘‘rat- tat-rat-tat” of what she called ‘‘thim dratted telegram bhoys.”’ | When Mrs. Lafaye reached town she drove to her own suite of rooms at the Langham, and there, in the quietude of her own boudoir, and enjoying the luxury of her own company, shared only by tea and letters, she thought out her scheme for giving this ‘‘three-volume” tragedy a happy, if somewhat con- ventional ending. In the first place, she must get to know Tom Rivers, and judge for herself what manner of man he was. | She knew his address. She had secured it in a casual way from Sir Wilfred, and with a vague hope that she might have met some of his “‘ people” in the whirl of the past season. In that respect, however, Fortune had not favoured her. His female relations consisted of a mother, who did not go much into society, being elderly and in delicate health, and a cousin, who was of the esthetic type of girls, and went in greatly for art and literature, but eschewed balls and parties as ‘‘frivolous.” The redoubtable ECOMNCE OOO SS) (SO