Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

A CHANGE OF ABODE 163 called upon Lord Petersfield, and extracted the portrait which had so much excited Frank’s attention, and which was subsequently recognized by Adolphus as that of his mother, Lady Everton. Then Elizabeth Chandos entered more fully into details than she had done on the previous - day, in respect to the researches she had made with regard to those circumstances that so closely concerned Adolphus. She minutely narrated all she had learned from old Bob Shakerly, and she made no secret of the stratagem she had devised and executed for eliciting from Marlow and Malton the abode of Lady Everton. In the course of these explana- tions, she did not forget to state how Theodore Barclay had been bribed to betray what he knew concerning past events, and how it was through his suggestion she had called upon the lawyers. “And now, Mr. Gunthorpe,”’ she said, thus winding up her narrative, and speaking in a low and tremulous voice, full of emotions, ‘‘ I have unbosomed all my secrets to you, as if I were on a death-bed making revelations of everything. You are acquainted with all the errors of which I have been guilty; my whole life is before you. In whatsoever colours I now find myself in your presence, I at least have the satisfaction of having told the truth; for I repeat, there is within me the intuitive feeling that you had some right to demand these explanations at my hands. But you have promised not to be too severe in your blame, and the emo- tions which you have exhibited at many parts of my history give me every reason to hope that you are not judging me too harshly, too severely.”’ ‘““ Heaven forbid, my dear Elizabeth! ”’ said the old gentle- man, down whose cheeks the tears were flowing fast, and this was not the first time he had been profoundly moved during the two hours which had elapsed since Lady Bess first commenced her history. ‘‘ Blame you, no!’ he added, with sudden vehemence, as he wiped away those tears, and starting from his chair, he began to pace the room in the utmost agitation. ‘“‘I cannot blame you. The blame rests with those villains who robbed yourself and your poor brother out of the ample fortunes which should have been yours, and which, by making you rich, would have elevated you high above the possibility of any temptation. Ah, yes, and there has been blame attaching to another, — another, CONIIClOOOKS (EO)