The Widowed Bride — page 185: what you’re looking at

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

176 THE WIDOWED BRIDE. velvet, starred with diamonds, that she wore there, impeded her free breath, and loosening its clasp. “Yet you desert me in the very point I have most at heart.” he said, in a tone strangely insolent—‘‘the winning of your daughter to be-my wife!” “Mr. Poynings, you must know that such a thing as that 1s totally im possible,’ * said Lady Glenhampton, her color rising, and her voice quivering with repressed indignation, “‘My daughter is the Lady Blanche Arden.” “And I am nobody but plain Theodore Poynings. Your ladyship does not need to remind me of the fact,” said Mr. Poynings. ‘‘Yet, all this to the contrary notwithstanding, I intend to marry your daughter, and | am here to-night to insist upon your countenance and support to my suit.” ‘‘But she is already engaged to Lord Vere Temple.” “The engagement “must be broken off!” He spoke in a tone so arrogant and full of insolent self-— assertion that. Lady Glenhampton, who up to this time had seemed under the influence of .a spell which kept down her anger and contempt, could endure it no longer. “T think,” said she, haughtily, ‘ ‘that. you forget to whom you are speaking, Mr. Poynings. I have made your fortune; 1 have constituted you a protege of my own; | have lifted you out of the obscurity of a mere attorney’s clerk Into the best society of the neighbor hood; but I will not thus be insulted by you. Will you ieave ‘my presence, or shall I be obliged to call a servant?” “Twill not leave your presence,” Mr. Poynings answered, with cool audacity; ‘‘nor would I advise you, always speak- ing in your own interest, to ring the bell upon which your hand now rests. Lady Glenhampton, you and I both know that there are matters better kept within as contracted a circle as possible. If you will reflect a moment you will perceive how unadvisable. it is to allow your temper to get the better of your discretion.” The Countess of Glenhampton bit her hp until the blood started. | ‘Mr. Poynings,” said she, ‘how much do you suppose I am going to bear from you? I advise ye to beware; there are limits to all human endurance.” “It is quite useless to beat around the bush any longer,” said Mr. Poynings, with folded arms and a smile that was nothing but a sneer. ‘‘We ought to understand each other — comick