Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 215: what you’re looking at

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

208 A SEVERE THREAT. CHAPTER XXII. KITTIES SECRET. ‘¢ Dead !” Howard Ashleigh turned the word over in his dazed, bewil- dered mind. | The word tolled like a death-knell in his brain. He staggered forward, slowly and falteringly, toward the house, while Hal, fearing that he would fall, followed him closely and so conducted him into Kittie’s pretty parlor. He sank into a seat like one exhausted while the news was imparted to Kittie. All her own grief, and the hidden sorrow of her ‘secret, all was put ‘aside—brave little Kittie! she came to Howard’s side, and extended her hand in silent sympathy. He held it fora moment in his own, then turned his haggard face away. ‘‘He wants to be alone, Hal,” whispered Kittie; ‘‘let us leave him to himself.” So they withdrew from the room, leaving Howard to battle with his sorrow alone. Days and weeks drifted slowly down the aisles of the vanished past, and still the trio lingered at Ocean Springs. Meanwhile, Kittie had grown strangely.cold and distant to her brother’s friend. Howard observed it, and felt a dreary sort of regret, but was really too indifferent to the whole world out- side of his own sorrow—which, for the time, rendered him selfish—to trouble himself greatly concerning her altered de- meanor. One afternoon Kittie tied on her broad-brimmed sun-hat and went down to the beach, where her boat lay moored—the Undine—a fanciful little craft, all green and gold, with crimson Eomicbooks.co =p