Penny Dreadfuls, 1891 · page 198 of 329
Vashti's Fate — page 198: what you’re looking at
A restored page from Penny Dreadfuls, 1891. Page through the whole issue in the reader above.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
= - ae Pao ee . id “aR yg al - 7 ee: . 7 SP oe Na ey +P ce as € ae a * »i * , — ms CA . 2 ‘Mia, wae? PP is ee i= ; ~ ‘7 ad ae ae “4 + ‘ ge to ; A, ' : - - ; Taree af \ ts ’ ay a be . . a DREAD. 193 rather more than usual this winter. Margery Gresham began to stoop slightly as she walked. Miss Dale—well, | she looked paler and thinner than any one had ever known a her; but she was gay to extravagance—gay with a hilarity ie that nobody was pleased with. She seemed in a nervous tremor and excitement, laughing constantly like an actor in a farce, hovering about: Mrs. Everleigh, and avoiding Vashti inexplicably. Her influence over the poor sick lady increased rather than diminished daily ; but, alas, it seemed of late to one mind an influence rather of fear than love, Nora, always hanging about watching for solitary mo- ments when Miss Dale was absent from the room, that she might steal in for a kiss or a loving word, was shocked by being bidden by her mother to hurry away before Miss Dale got back—bidden with an accent and expression of terror as mysterious as sad. _ As spring came—spring that always heretofore glad- dened Everleigh—every one seemed to shrink dismayed and scared at its approach. Vashti kept more than ever to her room; Miss Dale’s f levity grew more boisterous and ill-timed; and Margery, Margery Gresham, avoided everybody, falling into long fits of moody abstraction, sitting for hours with her stern face motionless, and her clasped hands upon her lap, or pacing the floor in a seemingly tireless march. March, April, May. The birds sang, the flowers blossomed, sunbeams chased shadows in the beautiful grounds round Everleigh, but within one shadow stalked that mocked the sunniest sun- beam that ever danced. Nobody said ‘‘ first of June,” but everybody’s heart was heavy with the thought of it. Ecomicbooks.com