Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

220 BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. «¢ «Oh, if I might live to welcome home your noble Iso- lina!’ she used to sigh. But it was not to be. <‘'The disease returned with fell power, and almost with- out warning she passed away. On the 5th of November I buried her beside my father in the Joselyn vault. ‘‘] was now alone; the last of my blood was beneath a marble slab; nothing bound me to my echoing halls but the grief which for a time prostrated me. ‘“Dr. Pemberton, ever faithful, reminded me that happi- ness awaited me across the ocean; that my noble-hearted young bride would console me; and that it was my duty to go at once and claim her. “The thought of her devotion, which had expressed itself in every letter, fired me with new hope. I would take her to my arms and reward her by a life of love for the noble sacrifice which she had made for me. I quietly got ready and prepared to embark by the first steamer. ‘The carriage was at the door which was to convey me to the railway sta- tion, when a packet arrived by the Liverpool mail. It was from my wife, inclosing the six letters which I had written her, and demanding in the most imploring language a di- vorce, assigning no reason, but on the contrary forbidding me to make any inquiries into reasons which were strong and fatal as death. ‘‘Such was the letter which came to me on the 14th of November.” CHAPTER XXIX., VICTOR JOSELYN’S STORY—CONTINUED. “QO, she is fallen Into a pit of ink! that the wild sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, And salt too little which may season give To her foul tarnished flesh!” : Mucu Apo Axsovut NortHIna. «‘T remained so long shut up with my wife’s letter, that at last Dr. Pemberton came to the door. “«©“We shall be late for the cars,’ he cried, ‘what has come over you, my dear boy?” ““T opened the door, and with ghastly composure, waved him in. Ifelt as if I should never speak again. I pointed CORNUCG OOO S (©)