The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 226: what you’re looking at

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

CRAZY JANE 909 woman, and they used to say I was pretty at the time the dear duchess and Bertram Vivian — But what could have become of them both?” she ejaculated, thus suddenly in- _terrupting herself; ‘“‘ what could have become of them? I wander again. There is that other thing I wish to get back to my mind. Let me see? If I steady my head on both my hands, I can always reflect with more clearness; I will shut my eyes, so as to see nothing to take off my attention. There, like that.’’ Now the woman ceased speaking, and Redcliffe anx- iously waited to hear what next might issue from her lips. But five minutes passed, and she said nothing; ten minutes, and still she continued silent. He held his breath suspended; he was motionless behind the hedge; he was so completely on his guard as not so much as to rustle a leaf for fear of in- terrupting her in the current of her thoughts. “There now,’ she abruptly exclaimed, “ I have got the whole of it as completely in my head as if this was the night when it happened, and as if I had not thought of anything since. Ah! if any one to whom I chose to reveal it should pass by at this moment.” Redcliffe glided noiselessly along the back of the hedge, reached the gate by which he had entered the field, and passing through it, once more emerged into the lane. Crazy Jane immediately recognized him as the gentleman whom she had seen two or three days back in:company with Sir Wiliam and Captain Stanley, and by a certain association of ideas, she conceived that any friend of theirs must be a fit and proper person to receive the communications which she had to make. For the woman’s intellects were not so completely disordered as to prevent her from having at times a certain amount of the reasoning faculty left, and moreover, as is the case with nearly all persons whose minds are unsettled, there were particular circumstances which would lead ideas into a connected flow and in continuous channels. . This was the case now, and for nearly half an hour did Redcliffe remain in discourse with Crazy Jane. He was careful how he dealt with her; he humoured her, he did not interrupt her quickly nor suddenly, he exhibited all possible patience, suffering the woman to tell her tale in her own way; and thus from her jerking, disjointed sen- tences, he managed to elicit a narrative which in itself was — — =a GOmiGaooks (S(O)