Vashti's Fate — page 296: what you’re looking at

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

Sp Peta neg bo D'S Sa eRe na eee ESS So a a ate itr Ae i a af A>, r Se % Ao a ~_ = re ve ee At 34 x ° ~ Pe DASCOMB—VASHTI. 291 They bore him, struggling, out of the room, and out: side the door proceeded: to secure his hands with strong cords. Vashti leaned on Nora, looking faint and death-like. ‘¢ Lead me to him,” she whispered to Nora. These rude men fell back as she approached and laid her thin, white hand on the head of the kneeling wretch. ‘‘May God forgive me my own sins as freely as I for- give you, Percy Dascomb,” she said, solemnly. The wretched man covered his face with his hands, Nora led her sister back into the sitting-room, and the officers bore him quietly and with some expedition from the house. Vashti sank into a seat, sobbing hysterically. ‘“What a degraded being I have been,” she said, ‘‘to have ever fancied [ loved such a man! Qh! Nora, my punishment is heavy, but I deserve it all.” ‘«Perhaps there is some great joy in store for you,” Nora — said, soothingly ; ‘‘ who knows ?” Vashti shook her head sadly, but the next moment her own rare smile broke faintly over her lips, as she said : ‘“T shall find it beyond the grave. I wait in hope.” What unaccountable impulse prompted Nora to say: ‘‘What if, after all, your husband were living, Vashti ‘ ‘‘Tf he was, if he was—oh, Nora, on my knees I would implore him, as poor Percy did me, to forgive me; to take the poor, blind girl to his heart. He would never shrink from me because 1am blind. He would love me so. Ishould be his wife, as [ ought to have been from the instant I took wifely vows upon me. He would have saved me, perhaps, from this ss She drew her hands across her eyes as she spoke, sigh ing deeply. ComiIcboo (eco) m Ks