Mezzoni the Brigand — page 111: what you’re looking at

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

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. 103 CHAPTER XI. A BLIGHTED HEART. We have had no glimpse of the inner life of AI- berto Corrello. Let us observe him for a moment as he sat alone in his own apartment reading that singular letter from the Countess Amadeo. He read the letter more than once, then sat still gazing upon the lines, until finally he started up and walked the room with undisguised emotion. He was now looking far back into the past, and a bitter smile wreathed his handsome lips. ‘“T had never thought,’’ he said, half aloud, ‘‘to recur to this matter again, but I will do so for her sake, and let her know for once, how dearly and fondly she was loved, when I was as innocent as herself and worthy of her!’’ We can do no better than to give the reader in full the peculiar letter which he dispatched to Signora Amadeo, in reply to that which she had written to him. It will give a clearer idea of this singular and mysterious man than any description of him by the pen: “QTaNoRA: I need hardly tell you how far back into the past the words of your note have carried me—to the days when you and I were boy and girl together, and lovers! You then commanded all of my tender- est affections—you were to me an idol. I never dared to express to you one-half the power of my love. Iwas disinclined to do so, because this senti- ment had become so extravagant and absorbing in me, that you would have been frightened had I given expression to its earnestness. EComicbooks.com —