The Man in Possession — page 327: what you’re looking at

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

322 THE MAN IN POSSESSION. fickle, and he himself kept so completely in the dark. But he did not deceive the little widow in the very least. She only retailed the whole affair mer- rily to Colonel Lawrence, after dinner, and advised him to lose no time in writing to Tom to acquaint him with what had occurred. The Colonel listened silently, then a curious twin- kle of satisfaction came into his grave deep eyes. ‘*T conclude I'll cable,” he said. What Tom Rivers’ feelings were when he received that cable it 1s not given to his historian to know. His only answer was to return to England by the very next steamer, thereby losing a valuable oppor- tunity of studying the social and political aspect of a great Republic, and the marvels to be achieved in a free country by even a hundred years of independent life. It was a great deal to sacrifice, but he was young and foolish, and time seemed all too long till he could see once more the sweet pale face of his Irish love, till he could hear from her own lips the assurance he dared hardly believe, that after all their quarrels, their pride, their misunderstandings and sep- aration, he was, and he alone had been, the ‘‘man in possession ” of that wayward heart. What of Sir Wilfred? He recovered slowly but surely, and went out to New York, and was married to a lovely American girl, as a fitting punishment for his harsh strictures on the charming womanhood of that country. Lady Jocelyn did not forgive Kate for her bad ECOMICHOOKS C(O)