Lady Evelyn — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

24 | Weaving the Web. as Doctor Watts pithily observes; and we must have our - jittie amusements. Don’t worry, Rory; I won't tell the ~ donna. Jord! how she would fire up at the thought of a rival! Jil keep your secret, and you'll reason with Kath- _leen. Morgan wants her, and if she marries Morgan, all will go on velvet. Her father wishes it—poor, old, _ broken-down spendthrift !—and you must talk to her as though you were her ghostly director, for the old fellow's - sake. Come, let us goin. Bella donna will think she has Ps 10St yOu.” | The wax-lights were lit in the dark, quaint old drawing- ~ room, with its heavy, antique furniture, and its squares of Persian carpet and rich old Turkish rugs laid over the polished oak flooring. Donna d’Alvarez. was still alone, still sha path by the window, gazing out over the shining, moonlit sea. She never turned at their entrance, and as her lover came up beside her, he started in wonder to see her face set and white and her black eyes glowing with dusky fire. “Inez, my darling! what is the matter?” “Nothing,” she said, coldly and briefly. She spoke English perfectly, and all the more charm- ingly for her musical foreign accent. With that one curt word, she turned away and swept over to his cousin. “~ Due enor, 99 she said, with her radiant smile, “you asked me this morning to sing some of our o!d Castilian ballads _foryou. I will,sing for you now, if you choose.” Gerald looked up in surprise. Suaye and swift as his courteous answer came, she did not linger to hear it. She had sailed away once more to the further end of the room, and bent above a tall, old-fashioned Irish harp. Her slender white hands sw ept the strings, and grand, masterly chords filled the room. Gerald Desmond stood - beside her, a shining, evil gleam in his cold, light eyes. A servant entered the room. “The earl wishes to see you in his room, my lord,” he said to his youthful master; and with a troubled face, ~ ' oa? . ee a . ES Lord Roderick followed him out of the room. Then Inez d’Alvarez threw aside her harp, and stood erect before Gerald: Desmond, with angry, flashing, dark eyes. “Half an hour ago, senor, when you passed beneath omicboo KS co