The Widowed Bride — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

THE WIDOWED BRIDE. 25 “Oh, Edith, I thought I had overcome that hideous habit! I have been in the park! Oh, I should have died outright of terror if I had wakened of a sudden and found myself there!” “But what makes you think so?” eagerly questioned the countess. ‘‘When I heard Boylsford’s voice in the corridor, I sprang up and caught my dressing-robe. It was all wet with recent dews; my slippers, too, bore the marks of a long night walk.” | She shuddered as the word’s fell from her lips, but Lady Glenhampton soothed her with soft words and loving caresses. ‘It is nothing, dearest,” she murmured. ‘‘Lie down and rest. Your mind is so agitated just now, that your poor, overtasked body cannot but sympathize with it. Shall I get you a soothing draught?” But Antonia refused aught in the shape of medicine, and Lady Glenhampton persisted in sitting beside her bed until a troubled slumber once more descended upon her heavy eyelids. ‘T‘hen she rose, and not daring to touch her lips to the fair, pale face, lest she should break the fragile charm of the uncertain sleep, lifted up a long yellow tress of Antonia Clive’s hair, and pressed it to her rich, red mouth. | For these two women loved one another with an affection rendered all the more singular by the wide differences be- tween their respective stations in life. Long before Lady Glenhampton or her husband had left their apartments, the next morning, little Blanche’s voice sounded merrily at Antonia’s door. ‘“Miss Clive! Miss Clive! please will you come with Ernest and me to look at where the fire was last night? Lieschen has been down, and she says there’s a lot of villagers there, and all the hop pickers on their way to their work, and the ruins are smoking yet!” Heavy-eyed, and unrested by her brief slumbers, Antonia Clive obeyed the little girl’s summons. and began a hurried toilet. ‘‘Perhaps a walk in the fresh air will do me good,” she thought. ‘‘At all events, it is worth the trial. Come, Blanche,” she added aloud, as she tied on her simple straw hat, and took up the white parasol, which lay on a table cS (E(@) nm comicboo