The Man in Possession — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 25 And shure, honey, if it’s your poor mother’s jules ‘tis your poor father’s intarior that’s got to be filled ; and with all the will in the world, Miss Kate dear, I can’t be making beef-tea and jellies out of black- beetles.” | Kate laughed in spite of herself. ‘‘ You know where the case is, Biddy,” she said. ‘‘Take what you like. There isn’t much now.” | Biddy came back in a moment, her face radiant with hopefulness and the excitement attending her proposed errand, ‘‘Now kape up your heart, Miss Kate,” she said cheerfully. ‘‘ It’s not long I'll be—and your papa— shure he’s slaping like a blessed infant. I've left hot wather, and the beef-tay is simmering by the kitchen fire and the man watching it. Good-bye, honey.” ‘‘Good-bye, Biddy,” said the girl listlessly, as she moved away from the window and took a chair by the fire. Biddy had not left the house five minutes before a knock came at the front door. Kate rose and was just about running downstairs to answer it, when she heard the kitchen door open and the sound of shuf- fling steps in the hall. ‘‘T suppose Fletcher is going to the door,” she thought and glanced over the bannisters. She heard a sound of voices, but thinking it was only the usual ‘‘call” for settlement of an account, she returned to the drawing-room again. The striking of the clock at last roused her from her somewhat gloomy thoughts. She glanced up. ‘*Eight o'clock. I had better go down to the kitchen COMicloe