His Other Wife: A Novel — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

172 AN ECLAIRCISSEMENT. signs, further than to afford him, as she thought, an hour of uninterrupted conversation with her young charge. Well as she concealed it, her horror was no less than ‘that of Faith’s guardian when the extent of the misfortune began to appear. : Not until they reached Lucerne, on the previous night, did Leda fully realize the imminent peril that manaced her. ) | Absorbed in gloomy contemplations of the dark. possi- bilities impending, Mrs. Croft took little heed of the pass- ing hours, until the sound of her husband’s voice roused her from her reverie. ‘Well, what news?” she asked, as Croft entered the library, looking haggard as some fiend-haunted criminal. He closed the door securely before replying, and then, flinging himself wearily upon a couch near by Leda’s chair, he said, in a smothered tone: “‘Not a trace of them has been discovered, though every portion of the forest and the plantations for miles around have been faithfully and intelligently searched for a clew. It is the most baffling mystery that has ever crossed my experience.” ‘“ Which is saying a good deal,” said Leda, with cutting sarcasm, ‘‘since mysteries seem to have been the order of your life.” } Croft took no heed of her taunt, nor of the cold, malig- nant glance that accompanied it. He went on, speaking in a troubled way ; 7 » Eomicbooks. 3 om co