The American Marquis by Nick Carter — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

eh le RM a NN ag eNO a : yi i, ry Te tid er ia WR rare 14 Na 2 Pus a Se Ma i) _ 260 © THE AMERICAN MARQUIS. a ~The ponte fell clear and distinct upon her affrighted ear. | She staggered to her feet. ) ~.. \ *€Who spoke?” | ) | a No answer. La — €Am I s0 guilty, then?” ' Her reason was slipping ffom her. Mira mue clasped her hands and looked beseechingly up, as iff “ appealing to Heaven, and then sank limp and liféless to the uf oor. - F But for that pitiful figure prostrate on the floor, the square chamber, with its scores of flaring candles, might | have. been mistaken for the sdme room at midnight not - many years before. : A few moments of dead silence, and a panel in one end | ES A chamber slid noiselessly aside, and Honore stepped | rare te Tort | _ Advancing sternly to the form of his wife, he gazed down 4 at her with a strange mingling of yearning ‘tenderness and — bitter scorn. This is the beginning of your suffering.” But even as he spoke, his heart gave way, and he knelt | beside her. a ~~ ** How can it be? how can it. be? She is outwardly sO sweet, so gentle, so loving. “‘If I did not know—if I had not the testimony of her own lips and my own senses, I could not believe. ‘Oh, my Grace, how I love you!—love you in spite of | all my knowledge of your wickedness. 4 _ **Why, then, may I not cease my persecution. of you, andl give myself up to the love that devours me? 4a ‘<T suffer as much in the infliction as you in the receiv- 7 ite buried his face in his kands. | ‘“No!” he exclaimed, suddenly starting to his feet. ‘ a is this very weakness | must. fight. : ‘‘ Was it not on this very spot that she overwhelmed me with her caresses and at the same time plotted my assassina- tion? “No. The Marquis d’Iberri may satisfy his love; Cline ton Hastings must gratify his hate.” : 4 a ie Comichooks aM m