Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 211: what you’re looking at

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

OCTAVIA'S PRIDE 901 But his own hand trembled over the letter, and his brow orew dark and stern. ‘< Well,” said he, presently, “‘the fellow must be looked after. It is a shameful thing in Doctor Marley that he did not destroy those papers. There will be no end, 1f once we begin to bribe or silence such a one as wrote that letter. I have half a mind to defy him. After all the whole affair 1s dead. ice could be. no great harm come from the ex- posure.” Lady Mary clasped her hands with a wild upward glance. ‘No harm? Oh, Philip, think of the disgrace!” The earl knit his forehead savagely. “Who would take this vagabond’s word against that of the Earl of Chichester? How has he obtained the papers? You say the woman declared they had been stolen. Is a thief to blacken the name of a peer of England?” Lady Mary caught her breath gaspingly. She said only two words, but the sorrowful, reproachful eyes held an ac- cusation which her brother read intelligently. “Qh, Philip!” He flushed even to his forehead, and stammered: “<I know I have no right, remembering my follies, to con- demn wrong in others. Perhaps you will say,” he added, bitterly, <‘I am but a mate for such, since my noble birth did not hinder my sharing their wrong-doing. I don’t wonder you are shocked. My poor Mary! when I remember what suffering it has brought upon you, I wonder you do not fill my ears with incessant and angry reproaches. You, who are innocent, seem to have borne the most anguish, ne most punishment.” “Innocent!” faltered Lady Mary’s shivering lips, and then she turned her face to the pillow, and closed her eyes. ‘“« At all events,” said the earl, regaining his composure, ‘this fellow must be granted the interview he desires. It may be a salutary thing for him to discover that he will not “S €o Gomicbhoo