A Heart's Bitterness — page 229: what you’re looking at

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

A HEART'S BITTERNESS. 221 idle little truant from the village school—who carried Lord Leigh this note: } ‘‘The man Kemp has come back. I can tell you where he is, and what papers he has, The papers are dangerous, ruinous, to you. Come and see me at the ‘Folly.’ We meet for the last time. If you cannot care for me, we part forever.” , To learn the whereabouts of Kemp, and the nature of his papers, was a matter of importance to Leigh. A wise and good man, who had no dark places in his life to conceal, would have found safety in referring the entire matter to his lawyers, into whose hands the affair, if pressed, must ultimately come. But Leigh’s genius was for conceal- ments, bribery, deceit, and his first impulse was to find Kemp and buy him off. He did not doubt that Helen, on consideration, would accept his offer of money, and he had faith only in a compromise that rested on a money basis. Thus, he rashly set out for ‘‘The Earl’s Folly.” Helen was waiting for him. ‘‘T had not meant to see you again, Helen,” he said, _ seating himself opposite her; ‘‘ but I suppose you have con- cluded to take the offers I made you. A woman such as you are need not lack for suitors—for rich suitors even—I think you can get out of life all you have any right to ex- pect from it.” ‘‘ Your step-brother, Bart Kemp, is rich, and he wants to marry me,” said Helen. | “Very good,” said Leigh, cordially. ‘‘I will give you an unlimited trousseau, and do all I ean for him in Aus- tralia.” 3 ‘‘ Perhaps,” said Helen, with intention, ‘‘you will be obliged to do more for him on his own account. He has papers that will unseat you from your earldom. You have mocked at my birth, how will you be pleased to find a broad bar sinister in your own?” | ‘It is false, atrocious woman!” cried Leigh, leaping to his feet, pale with fury. ‘‘It is true as truth. I have seen the papers. And only I can get those papers from his hands. It is in my power to bring you down to my own nameless level. Your wife will no more be Countess of Leigh. No coronet waits that _ baby earl whom she holds in her arms. Utter ruin, asa thunderbolt, will fall upon you, and I hold that thunder- bolt in my hands.” cComicbooks (E(@)