Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

16 HER ROYAL LOVER. CHAPTER XI. IN THE STUDIO. The awakening of Mineleko was terrible, when on the next morning, he found himself completely dressed, opposite his bed, which remained intact. He did not comprehend what that signified. What had happened to him then? Had he dreamed or had he been the unconscious spectator of that lugubrious scene? It-is still early in the morning; hardly half past SIX. One by one, all his recollections group themselves painfully in his thoughts. He had seen that window wide open and a shadow leap out of it. What being then, if not the king, would have been so audacious? Was not public opinion pleased to affirm that the monarch was in love with his wife? Monsieur de Mineleko uttered acry of rage; undoubtedly, Najeska Ivanowna has betrayed him. Ambition, future, honor, all crumbled before this horrible discovery; for what can he do when his rival is a sovereign, the sovereign of the country to which he is accredited? If he refused to remain at his post, it would be necessary to send in his resig- nation, and then, would he obtain in exchange an- other equivalent to this? Until now he had always Apabtaa. although Sus- picious; his confidence was so great in the loyalty of the princess that he had refused to believe that this woman with eyes so clear, so frank, could comicbooks: eo)