The Man in Possession — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN POSSESS‘ON. 283 were best left alone, or to that settlement, whether of chance or fate, which either terminated or ad- vanced them. Still, he listened and sympathised, partly for her sake, partly for that of Tom Rivers, to ‘whom he had taken a sincere liking. The conversation during luncheon-time was quite impersonal. They were both the objects of a good deal of attention and notice, and were quite aware of the fact. It did not suit Mrs. Lafaye to take the ' hotel: or its visitors into her confidence, and most certainly it was not in Colonel Lawrence's nature to be sentimentally obtrusive. They both indulged in an inward consciousness of perfect happiness and perfect comprehension, to which their light talk and jests were only a background. So the onlookers gained nothing by their observance, except a re- newed conviction that American women were all froth and sparkle, and couldn't speak a sentence without laughing. This assurance was all the satisfaction they could derive from observing the stride this friendship had made since the meeting of the previous night. Then they went their several ways, opining that the American widow was a dreadful flirt, but mitigat- ing the severity of their judgment by the saving clause that her gowns were ‘‘just a dream,” and must have cost a small fortune. So Mrs. Jackson Lafaye ought to have been a very happy woman |! comicbooKxs (SO