Beautiful Rienzi; or, The Secret Vendetta — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

128 BEAUTIFUL RIENZLI breath, though her breath was close to mine. I gasped and tried to lift my spell-bound eyes, and she melted into the darkest shadow of the room. A life-time of horror was compressed into the next hour. I lay moveless in my bed, chained hand aud foot by terror, watching the gradual receding of the woman. She flitted from the room by invisible degrees, a long, ghastly hand reached forward and grasped the door, and held it immovable while the shrouded figure grew into the outer shadow. Inch by inch it closed, and I thought time would not last to see it touch the lock. In the midst of my watching, impenetrable darkness filled the room; the moon had gone down and the black hour before dawn had commenced. A double terror fell on me that she would return.and destroy me in the dark, A cold moisture oozed from my brow, my limbs became para- lyzed, my torpor deepened into insensibility. When I revived the darkness had given way to bright, dancing sunshine; the horse-flies were noisily buzzing on the window. I raised myself and looked round. All was as I had left it, even to a silk vail which I had thrown upon the back of a chair near the door. Would not a passing form have brushed the light thing to the floor? My tumbler was ex- actly where I had placed it, within the very ring of mois- ture which had fallen from it last night. Could mortal hand have replaced it thus, with no light to guide? I be- gan to feel my pulse to see if I were not in some fever dream. The soothing sounds of human life were ushering in the morning; my mind became calm, partly because of the ex- haustion of my system; I insensibly fell into a deep sleep which was not disturbed until late in the forenoon. ‘« Dear heart alive!’ said Sophie, who was bustling about my room, and who greeted my first stare with a courtesy, ‘but you have been sleeping soundly, Miss Iva, dear. I have been here fixing round for half an hour, and you never woke up. Do you know what time it is, miss?” ‘‘No,” I replied, slowly calling back my scattered senses. ‘‘ Half-past ten, miss. You're late for breakfast by along spell, but vour ma said you wasn’t to be awakened on no ac- count until you slept off your weariness.” ‘<Sophie, did you sit up with my sister last night?” Gomicbooks (eo) Af)