Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

22 OCTAVIA’S PRIDE. eyes penetratingly upon his face, “‘did you ever keh of such a person as Gustavus Wainright?” Despite his best efforts to appear cool and unembarrassed before this idol of his heart, the general’s jaw dropped, and. the voice which answered faltered miserably. ‘Certainly, Octavia; he was my father’s cousin. He died ery a young man, out in India, in her ities § service.’ “Your father’s cousin, the elder brother’s son?” ques- tioned the beautiful Octavia, the lustrous eyes still keen and | watchful of every change in his face. ‘‘ Yes, I believe so. I think his father was the elder; but what matter since he died a young man ethan family ?” ‘“‘Had he lived he would have received all this great property of ours,” continued Octavia, musingly. ‘* Your father would have remained Pont and you would have been poor now, and [—a poor man’s poorer daughter.” A shudder ran through the stately frame. ‘“But it did not happen so. He did not live,” said the general, in as impatiant a voice as he ever used to her. ‘““So Screw & Scattergood assured me, but it seems the Middletons affirm that he did not die without heirs. They claim to be of his direct descent.” ‘“The Middletons are arrant cheats, and brazen impos- tors,” exclaimed the general, fiercely, rising up from his pillow with a sullen glow on his face, and then falling back with a stifled groan. ‘‘I will fight them, inch by inch.” ‘“What an endless amount of time and search has been given to this affair! I had no idea it was so laborious a life, that of a detective. Mr. Scattergood showed me the result of so many months searching. It quite turned my head to try to follow the facts eliminated—marriages recorded here, births there, deaths in another place, and’the curious way that members of obscure families drift away and are lost comicbooks.com.