Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 214: what you’re looking at

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

BEAUTIFUL RIENZLI. 209 CHAPTER XXVIII. “FOR O, “TIS LOVE! *TIS LOVE!” ‘‘She half inclosed me in her arms, She pressed me with a meek embrace, And bending back her head, looked up And gazed upon my face. ‘‘T calmed her fears, and she was calm, And told her love with virgin pride, And so I won my Genevieve, My bright and beauteous bride.” —CoLERIDGE The waters rolled in softly and the moon cast her silvery rays around us; and in our cozy nook, where perfect silence reigned, Victor Joselyn told his story. ‘‘My father was the only representative of a very old family in Somerset, and had an estate which from genera- tion to generation had been added to and improved, until it was one of the finest to be seen between the Mendip and Quantock hills. I believe my father was the first Joselyn for centuries who had not been a prize farmer, sportsman, and jockey. He was an Oxford man, of high talents, a re- fined taste, and a passion for the fine arts. He traveled for years through the classic scenes of Greece and Italy, and made pilgrimages to Palestine, in which he feasted his in- ordinate love of beauty, on everything which was rare and priceless. ‘‘The mansion of his ancestors was torn down, and a stately palace rose in its place, which soon became filled with costly and beautiful mementoes of every land he had visited. ‘So much for my father’s character. «¢T remember little of him; he died when I was ten years of age, leaving myself and a sister, two years my junior, completely orphaned. My mother I could never remember; and her name had always been shunned in our house ever since I could recollect. My sister and I had been placed under the guardianship of a faithful friend of my father’s named Dr. Alphonse Pemberton, who proved almost more than a father to us both until I became of age, and took possession of my fortune. CORNUCG OOO S (©)