Stella Rosevelt — page 187: what you’re looking at

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

EXPLANATIONS. 181 of Carrolton—and who, being a widower and childless, willed his estates and all that he possessed to me, with the provision that I was to assume his name, and consequently his title. ‘‘It would have suited me better to travel and remain plain Archibald Sherbrooke, as I always called myself, until my re- turn; but I was with a company of friends—all artists, who were traveling and studying with an old painter—who knew all the circumstances, and they would not hear a word to my remaining incognito, and insisted upon introducing me every- where by my newly acquired title. ‘*As plain Archibald Sherbrooke, I met, wooed, and won the young lady of whom I have told you, but I intended, when I formally asked for her hand, to reveal the circumstances which have made me Lord Carrol. I have not fora moment thought of deceiving her, for I abhor double-dealing of any kind; but, notwithstanding, I find myself in a very awkward situation. ‘‘You will, perhaps, be surprised to learn that to-night, since going out after dinner, I met my betrothed by accident, and. very much to my astonishment, She had discovered that I have been sailing ‘under two flags,’ or, as she supposed, under false colors. She had heard of my meeting your daughter at Long Branch as Lord Carrol, and the report seems to have pre- ceded me, much to my surprise ’—here the young man colored . from embarrassment—‘‘ that I intended something more than a friendly visit here, and she has passionately denounced me for my duplicity—as it appears to her-—and refused even to allow me to explain my position. ‘“This is the mistake that I wish you to help me rectify by securing an interview for me with her, so that I can exonerate myself from all blame in her sight.” Mr. Richards was greatly astonished at what he had heard, and in nossmall degree disappointed, for he liked the young ‘man, and his wife had affirmed that Josephine was the magnet Gomichboo “S (EO)