Thrice Lost, Thrice Won — page 213: what you’re looking at

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

4 %, { ae A ‘y Ve Se. at, ay ue TN se 2 ht ~, ; e x | - ts t P , at, * : 4 iB AP a ia wh ey is . é Py Np 208 - Bear le “Swift Retributio 1 ‘There was a faint answering wibtibnte dies my aie OT § seemed paralyzed in Alwyn Bartram. = 8 98 | gs eNO ie LO | Mr. Waldron drew a folded pens! from his poe et, opened — it at once, and began’ to read: | ae ~ When you see this, Alwyn Barta | tl “T will be in my grave—beyond the reach a pi. don your curse. The first I do not ask—the second I do not ; a. cd : I die as I have lved—dreading. neither man nor - devil— Reckléss Robert to the last. But I want to do one Poor | litt girl an act of Justice—the only mean or pitiful act. of my hfe — was wronging her. But-it was. to wreak vengea nce on you. a I stood in your debt, my good cousin, for many an old enol a and through her I wiped them off. The deed of a coward and ~ a poltroon, was it not? I have been ‘ashamed to look - ee own. face in the glass ever since, by Jove! and i. don’t 1 ae EI could rest easy in my grave with my story untold. — ie ote “Well, then, Alwyn, Estella is innocent—innocent, as those — angels our mothers told us about in’ the days: long ago when a ‘we were innocent, too.’ She never was my wife; never for one | moment, I swear it! She always feared and detested me, and __ she loved you—you ungrateful beggar! with her whole good little heart, as no man alive that ever I knew deserved to be” loved yet. — a “The way of 1t was this, Old Peter Fisher hanes m, “thea miserly. old screw—got a letter from Miss Helen Mallory, of 4 Chelsea, saying that Estella’s father had turned up—was aaa millionaire, lawfully wedded to her sister Estella, anxious | to claim his daughter and heiress, and ready to pay all back 3 : standing debts contracted for her; to come down | prince, in fact. Old P. F. sends for me. - ‘Look here, ‘Roy sten,’ says the old hypocrite—I was Roysten Darrell, ‘the | smuggler captain, then—‘let’s make a good thing of hia Let’s marry Estella; then her husband claims his share c of his rich father- in-law’ s wealth. You’re young and clever a ands good looking,’ says P. F.; ‘what’s to hinder your marrying 4 her, Roysten, my boy, and sharing the spoil with | ‘me? 3 “N othing, says J. ‘but. that she hates me like ‘poison. — ‘She’ 1 never do it, you’ll see. ‘We will make her,’ says P.. a a A = will go hard with us if’ you and I are not a match for ¢ one little girl. Ill make her marry you, or Pll know the r reason why.’ Well, 1 was willing; a wife more or less, , seeing | 9 Mi ad a couple of dozen already, made little odds tome. I was “a I- ing, and I said so. Old P. F. breaks the news to Essie. As: said, there was the dickens to pay bgrayi eo o ie pro- tested she wouldn’t:; she would die first, fad, 10 ON. 3 didn’t believe her, but, by George! she meat n fit in Rockledge—a friend of ese. who ha Axle ‘oe ieaeh a = FE), wad, BS - ‘ b wy ve ie i. a ( fl , { L | % : rth ip Ps. ° ane se wars | A mh ef me ef . ig apes re Ruf fhe he ie