The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 332: what you’re looking at

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

THE BOUDOIR 315 The baronet did as he was desired; and Venetia, opening the jewel-box, drew forth the packet of letters tied around with the white ribbon, and over which we have seen her weeping so bitterly. Unfastening the ribbon, she selected two or three of the letters, and requested Sir Douglas Hunt- ingdon to glance his eye over their contents. He did so; a quarter of an hour or perhaps twenty minutes were thus absorbed, and while he was perusing those letters, Venetia sat pensive and mournful, watching his countenance. ‘Now that you have read those letters,’’ she said, when Sir Douglas laid down the last one which she had given him to peruse, ““ you have acquired some insight into the char- acter of a being in whose behalf I am about to enlist your services.”’ - Having thus spoken, Venetia took the letters and locked them up in her jewel-box again; then, after a long pause, during which all her thoughts appeared to be held in deep abstraction, she began to address Sir Douglas Huntingdon in a low and solemn tone of confidence. But what she then said to him, the revelations which she made and the service which she exacted, must remain at present a mystery to our readers; and therefore do we at once drop the curtain upon the scene. CONNIE ooolks (SO)