Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

THE APPOINTMENT 117 “© heaven! he says that I love him not!” cried the maiden, wildly, as she sprang to her feet; and in another moment she was again clasped in his arms. “Ah! then you do love me! — you do love me!’ he exclaimed, in a tone half-melting, half-triumphant. “Oh, yes, I love thee! — God knows that I love thee! ” was the fervid response. Alas! alas! our soul is exceeding sorrowful for thee, Octavia Clarendon, for thou art now in the power of the seducer! Defoliated is the flower of thy chastity; and thou knowest not to whom thou hast surrendered thyself. But u Mr. Harley possessed a diabolical skill in enacting the part of the betrayer of innocence, he was not the less expert in soothing the soul that was now stricken with remorse and in quieting the anguished alarms that suc- -ceeded the moments of pleasure. He who had ere now spoken of the poverty of language when used to convey ideas of a fervent love, found that it was rich in vows, pro- testations, and oaths calculated to solace the mind of the ruimed girl. And how could she do otherwise than suffer herself to be thus consoled? On what other reed could she lean save the promise of her lover? Was it for her to give way to despair, ere hope had ceased to exist? Oh, no; and Octavia, abandoning herself entirely to that confidence which her very position compelled her to place in her se- ducer, smiled upon him through her tears, and gave herself completely up to him, and shut out from her vision the world which she had, as it were, quitted, in order the more fully to enjoy the delights of that Elysian sphere into which he had wafted her. It was past ten o’clock when she quitted the milliner’s establishment — alone; for Harley made her understand that the “respectability ” of the house would be com- promised if they were seen issuing forth together. But ere they separated, he had obtained from her a promise that she would meet him there again on the ensuing evening, provided her father did not return home in the interval; in which case he gave her the address of a hotel where he alleged that he was staying in London, and where she might write to him. Heaven only knows what excuse Octavia made to her sister for her prolonged absence of several hours. Certain, GOmicsdoo eS) (C©)