A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

ww = - RIFTINGS. | 133 over me. Indeed, in all my life 1 do not remember hay- ing.experienced such a shock, such disappointment, such a strange feeling of sorrow. ‘** Yes, I knew the rascal well. ”” ** ‘Was George Everest a rascal?’’ ‘“*Was he? Well, when they hung that fellow, in Texas, they rid the earth of one of the worst scoundrels that ever infested it; but I will say one thing: George Everest was a pretty decent fellow until he made the dis- covery concerning his family history. ’’ My blood became actually chilled. I was about to learn the truth at last; I was about to pierce the mystery and solve the secret—the terrible secret—that had led another George Everest to act the part of a villain upon discover- ing suddenly, as I perceived he had, the mystery of his birth; for 1 discerned what the answer would be when I asked the question: ** What was his family history?’ ‘‘The great-great-grandmother of George Everest was a mulatto, an octoroon; the knowledge came to him sud- denly; it was told in a malignant spirit of spite, but it was the truth, and it changed George Everest from a gentle- man to a vagabond. He became a drunkard, spent his fortune in gambling, and finally committed a murder in ‘T'exas, and was hanged. Poor fellow! he turned out a vil- lain, but, after all, is was hard to learn the fact that made him what he was. ’’ I was a sad man; 1 regretted I had ever started out to solve this mystery. No wonder George Edicott had kept his secret, Honor demanded that I should keep it also; Gomichbooks (E(0)