Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

THE FATHER AND DAUGHTERS 239 haughty family at whose hands their sire had suffered so much chilling neglect. Mr. Clarendon now began to unfold to them the views which he had conceived relative to their future mode of life. He proposed forthwith to take a house in a fashionable neighbourhood, and court that society in which the im- proved state of his circumstances would henceforth enable himself and his daughters to move. Octavia and Pauline were both delighted at the prospects thus developed to their contemplation; for the same thought instantly struck them both, namely, that their sudden elevation in the social sphere would render them more worthy of the suitors who had already appeared for their hands. A considerable portion of the morning was taken up in these explanations and discussions; and when there was at last a pause in the conversation, Octavia and Pauline began to inform their father of the adventure which had occurred in respect to Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Mordaunt. They told him how the carriage had broken down in the road, how they offered the hospitality of the villa to the two ladies travelling in the vehicle, how Mrs. Mordaunt became a mother during the night, how the infant boy was entrusted in a mysterious manner to Mr. Thurston, the surgeon, and how Mrs. Smith had insisted upon presenting them (Octavia and Pauline) with valuable presents in return for their kindness. Mr. Clarendon listened with profound attention to the extraordinary narrative; and when it was concluded, he praised his daughters for having so promptly offered the ladies an asylum, but regretted that they should have accepted the jewelry. On this point he, however, touched lightly enough; for his own altered circumstances had put him into too good a humour and had elevated his spirits too highly to allow him to be very serious in his remonstrances. In respect to the adventure itself, he coincided with the opinion which Octavia and Pauline had already formed, to the effect that the ladies were most probably of rank, and that the names of Smith and Mordaunt were assumed. But with regard to the terms on which Mr. Thurston had con- sented to take charge of the child, and the payment of the large sum of ten thousand pounds, Mr. Clarendon still re- mained ignorant, inasmuch as his daughters themselves were unacquainted with these arrangements. CORMICLOOO <S) (S(©)