Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 141: what you’re looking at

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

134 A SEVERE THREAT. ing upon the proud, haughty face of the girl before him, Sir John felt the sluggish blood leap madly in his veins. More beautiful in her anger and contempt than he had ever seen her, the baronet registered a vow within his heart to make this girl his own, though it cost him his life. It wasa mad, unreason- ing passion, and for the time swept over his entire nature like a flood tide, carrying every other consideration before it. He gazed into Geraldine’s white face with eyes full of ominous fire. ‘* Your wild words only serve to strengthen my resolution, Miss Vernon,” he said, decidedly. ‘‘I see now what a spirited Lady Sydney you will make. And how I shall delight in clip- ping my lady’s wings,” he muttered, aside. With a haughty gesture, Geraldine swept past him toward the door. ‘The baronet strode forward, and extended one arm, as though to bar her passage from the room. ‘¢«Stop, my Lady Disdain !” he cried. ‘‘I demand my an- swer now. Isthe marriage to take place at once, this very hour, or am I| to wait another year? Be careful, my dear; my patience is not without limit.” : She paused and faced him quietly, gazing straight into his face, with haughty, defiant eyes. She had decided to comply with her father's command, and take this step which wound ren- der her own life a howling wilderness; for her father’s sake, that he might not be deprived of liberty—life, perhaps. But she could not—could not do it now, when her heart lay crushed and bleeding beneath the weight of the awful blow which had fallen upon it—the news of Howard Ashleigh’s death. No! though they killed her, they should not drag her, a heart-broken widow, to the altar, within the very hour upon which the awful tidings had reached her. She struck her clenched hands to- gether with a fierce gesture, and turned her blazing eyes upon » the wretch who awaited her reply. ‘‘No, sir,” she returned, contemptuously, ‘‘you shall not compel me to comply with your wicked proposition now. No Gomichooks:¢o Re