Beautiful Rienzi; or, The Secret Vendetta — page 188: what you’re looking at

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

BEAUTIFUL RIENZL — 181 room. Mrs. Haller hurried in, and the two women broke out in chorus at thesight they saw. ** Yes,” I assented, almost smiling in my bitterness—“ it is rather dreadful, is it not. Both poisoned, Mrs. Haller— both poisoned by the lady you call Mrs. Ringwood. Come, Sophie—my mother first. Lay her on this couch; unfasten that collar. Now, Mrs. Haller, my sister! Yes, I shall hold her head—I am quite strong for anything. So—now go and get what you can to prevent the effects of the poison; what poison I cannot say.” The old woman began in a quavering voice to pour out various recipes for counteracting poison, and I listened to her list of antidotes such as chalk and oil, milk, iron- rust, vinegar, starch, white of egg, etc., with patient help- lessness. | ‘Go and bring some one of these many nostrums, then,” Isaid. ‘*You may blindly hit on therightone. Has Nel- son gone?” 4 ‘* Yes,” whispered she, in an awe-struck voice. ‘“Can he easily find the village doctor?” ‘*T told him where to go—-a mile up the Cat’s Head hill, on t’other side of Ranelagh. He went on horseback.” ‘He will not be back in time,” I said, relinquishing my last hope with bitter fortitude; ‘‘ they will be dead long before help can come to them, if my sister is not dead al- ready!” Mis Haller began to weep, and hurried away for some of her medicine; Sophie, terrified into perfect silence, was beating my sister’s cold hands, in the manner approved for a swoon. : Her bodice was unlaced, and her beautiful bosom lay still as a bank of snow, frozen by a north wind; she was not sleeping like my mother, and I thoughtshe was already dead. | I came away without a word, and something turned my body cold like lead; my heart grew so stony that I no longer felt the pangs of sorrow. I secretly rose against that Creator who seemed to have devoted us to destruction; I no longer strove against what seemed His merciless will; let these victims die. Fate had marked them. With cold fury in my heart, I left the house, and stepped out into the garden. I fled from Silverlea, and found myself on the road to GComichboo Ss (<(0)