A Social Meteor — page 204: what you’re looking at

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

194 A SOCIAL METEOR. CHAPTER XIV. A STRANGE REQUEST. Three days after this, Peter Persuade was ushered into the joint presence of Mrs. Clarke and her niece, whose day it was to receive. As he usually strolled in every Saturdzy, nobody paid particular attention to him, so he seated himself in one corner of the drawing- room, where he could see everybody, and made himself perfectly at home. Heinvariably carried his hatin his hand, and any one, upon examin- ing it, would be very apt to find a lump of chew- ing-eum stuck inside of the crown. He was always well-dressed, and looked every inch a gentleman, though he would tell you in the most cheerful manner imaginable, if you asked him, that he had not a dollar in the world out- side of his salary, and a small sum which his mother, who was blessed with plenty of the all needful, allowed him monthly. He took a mischievous delight in hearing women chat with each other, old ones, especially, Gomicbooks (E@)