The Widowed Bride — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

THE WIDOWED BRIDE. 85 gee yonder shaft of crumbling stone, with the festoons of ivy waving to and fro in the wind?” ‘Yes; it looks almost like a monumental pillar.” “Tt 7s a monument,” said Blanche, in alow, earnest voice. ‘Tt is all that 1s left of a pretty little porter’s lodge that once stood there—the chimney stack.” ‘“What became of it?” asked Rena, fixing her dark eyes full upon her companion’s face, while her heart throbbed violently. ‘It was burned to the ground,” answered Blanche; ‘‘but— what gavea terrible interest to the occurrence was that a poor old man and two children, who had sought a tempo- rary refuge in its deserted rooms for that one night, perished also in the flames! No wonder you start and turn pale, Rena; it makes me shudder to think of it, even now, al- though it must be nearly ten years ago. A few charred and scorched remains were all which we could give Christian burial to. And papa never would allow them to remove the old chimney, around which the ivy had grown, as if it would fain conceal the ghastly ruins of what was once a happy home. And what made it all seem more frightfully horri- ble was that upon the same night & She stopped, for at that moment the carriage rolled under the arched marble gateway, whose clustered pillars were sur- mounted by carved bass-reliefs, and a gate-house built to correspond, stood back, half-hidden by a majestic growth of evergreens. . A beautiful httle Italian grayhound, as white as milk, with a silver collar round his slender throat, bounded into the carriage as 1t paused momentarily for the gates to be opened, and Blanche caught it upin her arms. ‘“My pet, my lovely little Pearl!’ she exclaimed, hugging and kissing it, while it struggled to lick her face, and uttered shrill cries of delight. <‘‘Oh! this seems like home In good earnest.” : As she spoke, the Castle came in sight, crowning a ma- jestic elevation all dotted with feathery branched elms and walnut trees of immense size and age, its central dome and gray stone towers catching new beauty from the sunset, and the marble-flagged terrace, from which the broad stone steps zd down, decorated with superb orange trees glittering with golden fruit, plumy palms, and acacias, whose mist-like foliage was indigenous to Palestine and Persia. Turning to €o nm (e(oy payiicel evoley <S