Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 200: what you’re looking at

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

LADY EVERTON 183. sarily took several days to complete all these arrangements, during which interval the Marquis of Kagledean was com- pelled to remain in England, but as Alexandrina continued to reside at Everton Park, they did not meet. Nor did he make the slightest. attempt to see her, for he felt that it would be most unbecoming and indelicate to do so under existing circumstances. At length the business was con- cluded, the necessary documents were signed, the money was deposited in the bankers’ hands, and the Marquis of Hagledean quitted England. He repaired to Germany, and settled himself at Baden. Some few months afterward he read in an English newspaper of the death of the Honourable Adolphus Everton, son of Lord and Lady Everton, aged twelve years, and very soon after that, he read an account of the return of his lordship to England. Deeply did he dread what might be the result of the meeting between Alexandrina and her husband. She had already betrayed her secret in a swoon, the same frightful accident might occur again. But no; it did not appear that there was any sround for his apprehension, inasmuch as the English news- papers frequently made mention of Lord and Lady Everton; and thus, as their names were coupled in the record of their movements, it was to be inferred that they lived together without a suspicion on her husband’s part of his wife’s dishonour. But Lord Everton had not been many months in England, ere death overtook him, and when the Marquis of Kagledean read the account of his demise, it was with a feeling that can be better imagined than described. Oh, might he not now hope that, after the usual period of widow- hood, Alexandrina would become his wife? He however remained in Baden, considering that it would be the height of indelicacy and impropriety to present himself to Lady Everton too soon after her husband’s death. ~ A year thus elapsed, and the marquis now thought that it would be no longer indiscreet to return to England. But then arose in his mind the memory of that solemn pledge he had given to remain absent a long series of years. Per- haps it was straining a point to consider that this interdiction continued valid after Lord Everton’s death, but still the Marquis of Eagledean was punctilious upon the subject, and he resolved to write to the brother, who had assumed the title, and ascertain his feeling upon the subject. In due Gomichoo “Ss (E()