The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 317: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVIII THE SIREN’S WILES PUNCTUALLY at five o’clock Baron Bergami repaired to the trysting-place on the shore of Lake Leman, and there, close by the jetty, did he find the three sisters waiting for him. They were pale, and had evidently been most pain- fully excited; indeed, as he approached them, their agitation was visible enough, notwithstanding their efforts to look composed and even assume an air of confidence. i Bergami had no pity for them. He felt shocked at the thought that three such lovely creatures, so eminently endowed by nature, should possess hearts so black, and that such fair exteriors should serve as a veil to hide so much profligacy and dissoluteness. Alas! what charming skins do some snakes wear! What dazzling hues appear upon the sinuous forms of those serpents whose touch is death! Yes, Bergami felt shocked as he thought of the depravity of these three young women whom nature had made so beautiful, and he even experienced the suffocating sense of a sudden indignation as the incidents of the ermine cloak and the personation of himself rushed with vivid effect to his memory. But subduing any outward expression of his emotions, and shrouding whatsoever he felt beneath a calmly dignified demeanour, he made the usual salutation of courtesy as he approached. His manner, though so reserved and distant, almost to sternness, nevertheless somewhat revived the spirits of the three sisters, for they had almost expected that he would accost them with immediate upbraidings and reproaches. Kimma, especially, regained much of her lost fortitude and assurance, and flinging a second glance, from beneath the rich dark fringe of her eyelids, on the calm, pensive, and 300 Eomichoo CS (E(0) —— —_— 1.