Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 196: what you’re looking at

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

A SEVERE THREAT. 189 cry was for Howard, loved and lost! Standing at the bedside _ of his wife—wife in name only—Sir John Sydney listened to her ravings, and at last he knew that not only did she hate him in- tensely, but—she loved another man with all her heart and strength. He did not dream that there was more concealed from him, that Howard Ashleigh had been Geraldine’s lawful husband, but he had heard enough, and he ground out a fear- | ful imprecation between his set teeth, as he listened to her piteous cries for Howard, begging him to come back once more. There was a wicked glitter in the old man’s hard eyes, and he registered a vow in the very depths of his -heart to bring back to her remembrance, some day, the words that she had uttered, and a reason why she should recall them. And he was a man not likely to forget. Two days had: come and gone, and the crisis was at hand. Alone with her charge, the nurse bent over the beautiful face which lay among the pillows, her eyes closed, and the long dark lashes resting upon the pallid cheeks, and gazed long and earn- estly. The fever had spent itself, and she lay there like a broken lily; soon the crisis would be past, and the worst be known. There must have been magnetism, mesmerism, in the gaze of the new nurse, for Geraldine, half conscious, felt herself gradu- ally slipping away into the border land of sleep ; soon her regu- lar breathing betokened that she was in a quiet slumber. The nurse pressed her lips to one white hand. ‘¢ His sister!” she murmured, softly. ean bs sister! I would lay down my life to save hers !” The rustling of the silken drapery made her start as it broke the silence of the sick-room ; the nurse turned, only to recoil with a suppressed cry of een for there before her, her blue, triumphant eyes studying the old woman's face, her own white and resolute, stood Lady Venetia Chandos. A.red flush stained the swarthy cheek of Martha Winters. She set her white teeth hard together, and drew back involuntarily. Lady Venetia in- clined her head slightly. GEomicbooks GO =)