pross

Possibly at home, but of a certainty impossible for handmaid to anticipate intentions of Miss Pross, as to admission or denial of the fact.

It proceeded from Miss Pross, the wild red woman, strong of hand, whose acquaintance he had first made at the Royal George Hotel at Dover, and had since improved.

indeed!" said Miss Pross. "I am very much put out about my Ladybird."

"For gracious sake say something else besides `indeed,' or you'll fidget me to death," said Miss Pross: whose character (dissociated from stature) was shortness.

"Really, is bad enough," returned Miss Pross, "but better.

"I don't want dozens of people who are not at all worthy of Ladybird, to come here looking after her," said Miss Pross.

"All sorts of people who are not in the least degree worthy of the pet, are always turning up," said Miss Pross. "When you began it--"

Lorry knew Miss Pross to be very jealous, but he also knew her by this time to be, beneath the service of her eccentricity, one of those unselfish creatures--found only among women--who will, for pure love and admiration, bind themselves willing slaves, to youth when they have lost it, to beauty that they never had, to accomplishments that they were never fortunate enough to gain, to bright hopes that never shone upon their own sombre lives.

"There never was, nor will be, but one man worthy of Ladybird," said Miss Pross; "and that was my brother Solomon, if he hadn't made a mistake in life."

Lorry's inquiries into Miss Pross's personal history had established the fact that her brother Solomon was a heartless scoundrel who had stripped her of everything she possessed, as a stake to speculate with, and had abandoned her in her poverty for evermore, with no touch of compunction.

Lorry had begun, when Miss Pross took him up short with:

Believe me, Miss Pross, I don't approach the topic with you, out of curiosity, but out of zealous interest."