Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

164 BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. moonlight, and amidst the most abject terrors, would be recognizable again; still, | adhere to my suspicions that the face I saw last nightis the same. And now, to shake the apparently strong position of this Mrs. Ringwood. Why has our housekeeper been forbidden to speak to us of her? How should an irreproachable widow lady fear the gossip of an old woman? You see, at the very outset, this lady conceals something, which proves she is not what she seems.” “You reason acutely; but I have been speaking to Mrs. Haller of this, and from what she says, I think the poor lady is not to blame. Mrs. Haller is a well-meaning woman, and will not break a promise she made to Ralph Morecombe, but she gave me to understand that Mrs. Ringwood’s secret relates to some disgrace in the family—a son who, perhaps, is eluding the law—and she wished to keep the circumstances from the boy’s friends. My dear, we have no right to pry into any one’s private affairs without good proof of their identity.” ‘‘How probable it 1s that the son is Cecil Beaumont,” I sneered, still suspicious. “‘ Oh, mamma, do not deceive yourself. | ‘‘T shall not,” she answered; “‘but we must not be im- prudent. We can do nothing without proof; what a mad course it would be to arrest a lady ke Mrs. Ringwood on your single accusation. No, no; we must send for your father and his lawyer, and consult them; perhaps at this very moment they have discovered the real culprit who at- tempted to poison you.” ‘« We shall go and call on this woman, then, mamma?” ‘<Tf you wish. You can then judge more calmly if your suspicions have any foundation; and I will surely be able to detect any hidden treachery, if she 1s, as you say, ‘not what she seems.’ ” Mamma wrote a note to my father which Mr. Lindhurst promised to deliver, and which we expected would bring him down by the morrow, with Mr. Speingle, to examine into the cause of our panic. We agreed to drive Mr. Lindhurst to the station to catch the midday train, and from thence mamma and I were to call at the hotel and see the widow lady. We left my sister in her chamber in company with Sophie, who was charged to allow no one to see her mistress un- CORNUCG OOO S (©)