Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER. 171 CHAPTER XXII. THE STOLEN PAPER. On leaving the royal audience, the prince’?s mind was so much absorbed by the multitude of reflec- tions which agitated him, that the jealous husband had completely disappeared. For a moment, the anonymous letter, the cause of so much evil, was forgotten; the iulness of his dear Najeska Ivan- owna, his probable disgrace with his government, alone occupied his thoughts. What were the other calamities in comparison with these real perils? Why had he always acted thus? Would this lesson correct him? Would he know how to profit by the counsels which this rude school was giving him? Alas! the suspicious, vindictive nature of the am- bassador was soon to resume its sway. Hardly had he left the king, hardly had he crossed the last drawbridge of the palace, before Mineleko commenced again to think of that infernal missive. From whom was it? A woman, wounded in her pretensions, could alone have put such sub- tilty in her vengeance. But who, who in this city, could thus detest Najeska Ivanowna, his dear treasure? It is now, that he knows her to be ill, in danger, in great danger, perhaps, that he realizes how dear she is to him. He is terrified at the thought of losing her. What is it which predominates in him at this mo- ment, is it love or egotism? “T will know the truth! though I die for it!” he said to himself, “In order to succeed in it, I will Eomichbooks-com