The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 333: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXIX THE LISTENERS — THE OLD HARRIDAN THE plot of our tale is thickening rapidly; incidents are multiplying, and episodes are growing out of the adventures which we are now chronicling. It therefore requires a clear head on our part to keep these varied and yet ramified occur- rences as distinctly defined as possible, each in the special channel in which it is flowing, while the reader must carefully follow us as we advance in the seeming labyrinth, through which we shall, however, conduct him in a way to render all the objects he may encounter perfectly intelligible and clear. : But ere we return to the three sisters whom we left wend- ing their way back to the villa, we must pause for a little space to inform our readers that the whole scene which we have just described as having taken place on the part of Curzon, Malpas, Agatha, and Julia was witnessed by two ladies who were concealed behind the piles of the jetty. These two ladies were Lady Prescott and the Countess of Curzon, for such was really Maravelli’s new lodger, who had chosen to call herself Mrs. Montague. When Curzon and Malpas were at a sufficient distance from the pier, Lady Prescott and the countess issued forth from their hiding-place, and for some minutes they walked along the bank of the lake, side by side, in the deepest silence. But their countenances showed how violent, or, rather, how intense, were the feelings that agitated their - hearts, the passions which swayed their souls. Each was of an olive complexion, but a dead pallor now sat upon their features, and the strangeness of their looks marred even their beauty and gave them at the moment a ghastly, almost a hideous aspect. 316 EORMIELNOO KS m