The Widowed Bride — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

THE WIDOWED BRIDE. | 16? --The Bacon of Balfour,” she read, and underneat were the penciled words “By leave to deliver a message he Miss Cardiff, from Mrs. Vyvyan, of the Court.” «Ask him to come up here,” said Georgine, complacently. “How do [ look, Rena? Is my sash straight behind? Oh, do lend me that delicious little blue bow of yours for my hair, there’s a love! _ Lord Balfour was exceedingly polite to me when I was staying with dear Kate Vyvyan, and I some- times fancy—it’s a ridiculous idea, isn’t it, Rena?—that he admires me particularly. But where are you going, dear?” Georgine stared with wide-open, pale blue eyes at Miss Per- cival as she moved toward the door. | ‘To my own room, Georgine.. Lord Balfour’s call is not intended for me.” : “But Rena stayed to hear no more, and not until she was safe in the corridors did she pause to ask herself why she had fled thus precipitately from the presence of the man she most respected and esteemed in all the world. Her heart throbbed convulsively, the color glowed on her cheek, and even the distant sound of a servant’s foot on the stairs made her start. ‘‘! must see him no more,” Rena thought. ‘If he does not care for me, all associations that tend to feed this inward fever at my heart must be broken off; if he does—then there will be all the more reason that we should hencefor- ward be as strangers to each other!” She stood leaning over the carved balustrade, when a door close to her opened, and Miss Clive’s tall, dark, solid figure glided ont. She started with a slight ery. — **You need not be afraid, Rena Peroit al,” said Miss Clive, with a bitter smile. ‘‘lam neither shost nor witch, although I believe some of the people in Glenhampton take me for beth _the one and the other.” “T was not afraid,” Rena answered, ‘“‘but I never knew there were any doors behind those folds of tapestry.” ““You are not Initiated in all the mysteries of the castle yet,” Miss Clive rejoined. ‘‘In all the months you have sojourned at Glenhampton, you have never seen my room?” ‘“No,” Miss Percival answered, Moe “Would you like to see it?” “If you choose to show it to me.’ <S (eo) GOomicboo ns