The Man in Possession — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

46 THE MAN IN POSSESSION. CHAPTER V. ‘rH MASTER'S WAYS.” ‘* ARE you feeling better, father?” asked Kate, asshe brought the invalid his cup of tea next morning. _ * How is one to feel better in this detestable climate and living in an atmosphere not fit fora dog to breathe, ” answered Cornelius O’Brien pettishly. ‘‘Better?—no, I'll never be better unless I can get off to the Riviera or Madeira, or somewhere. I suppose I might as well wish for the moon.” Kate quite agreed with him. Shestood there quiet, and patient, not going through the form of any Christmas greeting. Why should she? Could any wishes on her part alter the dreary prospect of this Christmas time? Her father drank his tea. His cough was decidedly better, and his breathing easier, though he would not allow it. | ‘‘T wonder why Fate uses me so hardly,” he said. ‘‘Tdon’t wish to incur debts. I'm perfectly willing to pay everybody what I owe them if—if I only had the money. But I can’t get the money. No one will give me any, or help me to make it. My ten- ants won’t pay my rent, and no purchaser offers to COMicloe (Sri C(O)