The Mission of Poubalov — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

CLARA’S SEARCH BEGINS. 33 Clara read the next account in silence. It was much longer than the first, and a great deal of attention and im- agination had been devoted to the romantic aspect of the Situation. Clara was described as utterly prostrated by the blow, dangerously ill, refusing to see her most intimate friends; and the intended union of the beautiful orphan with the Russian exile was dwelt upon with appropriate grace and picturesqueness. She blushed for herself this _ time and laid the paper down impatiently. ‘‘T shall show them,”’ she said, ‘‘if they pay any further attention to the affair, that I am not prostrated by the blow, hard as it is.”’ ‘What do you mean, Clara?’’ asked Mr. Pembroke and Louise together. ) ‘Just what I said last evening, uncle. I am going to find Ivan.’’ | “Why! dear, what can you do?’’ cried Louise, pity- ingly. - “Do? Idon’t know yet what the details will be, but I can search for him. What better, what else could I do? If we had been married, and Ivan had disappeared, would it not be my duty as well as my inclination to turn the . world upside down to find him? Should it make any dif- ference just because the formal word had not been spoken that was to make us husband and wife?’’ Her voice trembled a little at the end of this brief speech, and her eyes were moist, but she took up a third paper resolutely and began to read. She had debated her situation thoroughly in the long hours of the previous day and evening, and her determination to devote herself to the search for her lover was not the effect of a tempo rary hallucination. Her uncle and cousin said nothing for the present either to dissuade or encourage her, Louise, at least, feeling that in due time Clara would see the futility of attempting anything on her own account as long as ex- perienced detectives were in the field. Mr. Pembroke left the room for a moment, and when he returned the paper he had been reading was folded and hidden in hiso pucnonc (@) (0)