Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 216: what you’re looking at

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

Sos: ake be san oh mM os a x a ae aS NE: . ata d rey ‘ ~~ - ~ .- =“ pe ty eee SS : PIA ae tags - < : ra ‘ ° — - - des ~~ * . 5 oo gO : Sn sh ee > = 4 . ~~ a —_ - mie F? a - - > - ote = ae 206 OCTAVIA’S PRIDE. 4 3 * . ae oe ee ‘<T do not know, and I do not care,” returned he, pas- sionately; ‘‘if the edifice tumbles, it will fall on oun heads as well.” ‘You are cruel and vindictive. You do not care for any gain of yourown. You only wish to punish me. You sent this Mathew Merle away once; why have you brought him back? ‘I warn you that he wil not help you to one farth- ~ ing’s worth. ‘* He will prove the legitimacy of my father’s claim. He will show to the world that the pRpHE Wainwrights have usurped another’s rightful claim.” _ She was standing still, looking down upon the carpet p pen- sively. ‘‘ Cruel and pitiless,” she murmured again. | «And is no one else cruel?” he burst forth, impetuously, ‘have you no mercy upon those who come in your path?” She lifted those large eyes of hers dilated with a sudden terror. | ‘“What do you mean?” ‘‘Ask your own conscience, which you are smothering with. the iron hand of your imperious pride. This Mathew Merle accused me of a two-fold stratagem. He says I con- cocted a strange plan to send a poor girl drifting helplessly upon the world. He says my disguise of a long cloak, and slouched cap, and bushy beard, has been shrewdly pene- trated. Look you, Miss Wainwright, the thing of which he accuses me is utterlynewto me. But I know something of such a cloak, and cap, and wig, and I guess who has been masquerading in them. I used them once myself, I make no denial of it. I smuggled them out of the old closet, and used them, but of such a girl, and the ship Sea’ Foam, and a Captain Leyard, I know nothing. Speak, Miss Wainwright. What does your conscience say to you, who accuse me of. being cruel and merciless!” | | The proud form was drooping, the lips trembled out of ¢: = ~ “.comicbooks.com