The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 334: what you’re looking at

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

THE LISTENERS 317 “ This is a strange, a wonderful coincidence,’’ said Lady Prescott, at length breaking silence. ‘“ Yes, a coincidence that seems as if it were prepared by Satan,’ responded the Countess of Curzon, in‘a tone full of deep and sinister meaning. “TI understand you,’’ said Lady Prescott, as if her own voice had caught up precisely the same intonation, which was indeed natural enough, as the same furies were gnawing at either heart and their souls were tortured by kindred fires. ‘“ Now,” said the Countess of Curzon, after a brief pause, “that man on whose head you have invoked an implacable vengeance is 1n your power.”’ “ But that man,’ rejoined Lady Prescott, ‘‘ is your hus- band.” “My husband!’’ echoed Eaditha, with a mocking laugh and a fiendish look, “‘ my mortal enemy, you mean. If you refuse to slay him, I will do the deed myself. Heartless villain, miscreant that he is, he has covered me with dis- erace and plunged me into ruin. Oh, with what fiendlike malice did he gloat over my fall and expose_me even to the very servants on that dreadful night when everything was discovered. Ay, and that demoniac vengeance which he wreaked upon my faithful, my loving Gertrude— But I have already told you everything, Lady Prescott, and need not recapitulate.”’ ) ‘Then you are decided upon abandoning your husband unto-my vengeance? ’’ asked the latter. ‘““T am,” replied Editha, in a deep voice, but the accents of which were full of a frightful and implacable resolution. “Vengeance for me, then!’ exclaimed Lady Prescott, in a tone suddenly thrilling with exultation, “‘ and vengeance likewise for you, Inasmuch as Malpas, that man of whom you have told me so many things, is within your reach.’’ “ Yes, Malpas, the vile, sneaking, pitiful coward,” re- sumed Editha, with a terrible accentuation on the words, ‘“ he who gave my husband all the information which enabled him to unmask the stratagem carried on through the agency of Lady Lechmere, he who furnished the clue to those arrangements which had been so admirably combined and which without such betrayal would have defied all his penetration, that Malpas who has worked so much mischief CORNICLOOKS (SO) mM