Thrice Lost, Thrice Won — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

“Post Tenebras Lux!” Daehn 251 4 blind blin “ gs. you have been, not to have known long ago! q Estelle ie'D De Montreuil no longer, but your little Essic, my * darling r husband, if you will forgive me and take me back!” She threw. herself upon his breast, in a sudden paroxysm a ory womanly Weeping, clinging to him with convulsive ; strength. | ' “At last, my Pihand, you love me—at last the pain, iia a misery, t the long, lonely, dreary Nilay of separation, are at an end! ae Oh, my darling—my darling! the dream of my life is a won! | . ‘He held her to him close—close. But he did not sete: B he could not; his heart ‘seemed ready to burst—full of an ec- 4 stacy that was nigh akin to pain. She lifted her lovely face, _ pale and tear- stained, in a piteous, childish appeal, that | re- - minded him of the “Little Essie” of other days. — “You are not angry, Alwyn? Oh, speak to me—tell,me _ you love me—tell me you are glad you have found your long- - lost Wape ye ik “GtTad !” he repeated—“glad! Oh, Estella! Sr eeit are noth- | ‘ing—I ean not say what is in my heart! I can only say, _ thank Ged ris oc | FRAN coe mbt 2k % % % Sih cite ee % % oy was an hour later. Side by side on the sofa these re- Fo Hee lovers sat, beginning to rationally realize their su- _ preme bliss at last. _ “How ten years must have altered me,” Estella said, “since vou did not know me! I have changed greatly, I know, in every respect, and I was not surprised that Leonie Sie would know your wife.” "4 “JT always saw the resemblance,” Alwyn di ierenba tand his the idea struck me that you might be my Estella, there Mees so many coincidences; but I drove the idea from me, as _ the maddest of mad romances. My little, pale, timid Essie. had so little in common with this yderally beautiful, this _ queenly Mademoiselle De Montreuil, with the best blood of _doned- for not recognizing you. But, Estella, why did you not tell me at once?” Bi “Ah, IT am only a woman like the rest, and I did want my _ hus sband to love me!” WwW ell, you speedily attained that wish, Heaven knows,” WwW hy did you not speak then?” — So ause, gir, you didn’t deserve it, and.revenge is sweet! aU id -suffered—T_ am not going to flatter your masculine vanity “now _by saying how much—and it was only poetic jus- a, not recognize me; but you—yes, I did think, cud seas F rance in her patrician veins, that I think even I may be par- | ‘ ase af : j , ) ag nit at : o us oe ania +00... end: it was so delightful-— (E(O) vr 7 A “> % ake | “J 1 ~*~) ‘ A ah | , ; . sau 4 + : comicbooks