The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 31: what you’re looking at

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

14 REYNOLDS’ WORKS seemed to have a veil upon her head — Does she possess a black veil? ”’ ‘“ Yes, my lord, several,’ responded Amy. “Well, then, she had a veil upon her head,” continued the duke, still speaking as if he were immensely troubled. ‘““ Alas, there cannot be a doubt of it. And now I recollect a thousand little things which have hitherto appeared trivial, —a thousand little circumstances which only now assume an air of importance. Vainly have I invited Stanhope to ride out with me, to go hunting or shooting. No, he has always had his excuses; he preferred remaining in the draw- ing-room — _ Oh, I shall go mad.’’ The duke paced to and fro in the apartment, with an agitation so well feigned, that Amy Sutton, shrewd though she were, could not for an instant suppose it to be a mere detestable hypocrisy. She, however, lost none of her habitual coolness, and stepping up to the duke, who accordingly stopped short in his apparently agitated walk, she said, ‘“ Nothing is more easy, my lord, than to clear up this matter at once.” ‘To be sure,’ he ejaculated, as if suddenly recalled to a sense of what he ought to do, “‘ and that was my motive in fetching you from your room. Go, Amy, to her Grace’s apartment. If you should happen to find her there — and God send that you may!— you can easily invent some excuse for the intrusion,” but Marchmont perfectly well knew that Amy Sutton was not a person to undertake any such mission, or else he would have been careful to go upon some other tack. ‘No, my lord,’’ she at once said in a firm and peremptory manner, “‘ I will not run the risk of being blamed for an 1m- pertinent intrusion. It is for your lordship to go to your wife’s apartment.’’ “No, no, Amy,” he said, with the air of one who was distracted, ‘‘ I am not sufficiently the master of my own actions. But we will watch— Yes, that will be the better plan. We will watch in the passage — we will see who it is that issues forth from Stanhope’s chamber. I may have wrongly described the dress, but you will be enabled to tell me. Besides, as I have made you my confidante in this most deplorable as well as most delicate business, you must remain with me to keep such watch.”’ CONNIE OO KS (E(0)