Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 239: what you’re looking at

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

222 REYNOLDS’ WORKS ; her heart never would have become accessible to the slightest impression which Christoval’s assiduities sought to make upon it. But now that they had met on other terms, — she in freedom, he no longer appearing in the invidious light of a captor; she independent to become the arbitress of his fate, he confessing that this destiny of his was in her hands, — that impression had been made in an hour which whole months under other circumstances had failed to accomplish. The beauteous bird, imprisoned in a cage, may - often be vainly wooed and coaxed and encouraged to sing, and thus many weeks and months, and long, long periods pass in the utter silence of its melody; but when freed from its captivity, it will in a moment pour forth the blithe carol of its gushing music, nor in anger for the past refuse to warble it in the ears of him who had been its gaoler. Like the bird of our metaphor is often the heart of woman. And so it was with Elizabeth Paton. On the preceding evening she had persevered in the assurance that she ex- perienced toward Count Christoval nought but friendship, and could feel no love, and she truly thought so when she thus spoke. But each time the assurance was repeated, it was in a less firm voice, and witha gradually growing tremulousness of the accents. The hand, too, which she abandoned to him more than once, was snatched away be- cause she recoiled from the bare idea of manifesting an undue weakness, and yet the fervour of the kisses imprinted thereon had not failed to touch an electric chord vibrating to the centre of her heart. Moreover, the strong mind of Elizabeth Paton had been destined to enter upon a phase of wild romance; it was not merely entering upon that phase now, —it was in the midst of it. Had not Christoval re- minded her that he had been a bandit? And did not his words suddenly excite the painful — ay, the poignant — remi- niscence that she had pursued a similar career? What there- fore was it now that was engaging her thoughts? What was the strange and fanciful phase of weirdlike romance through which her mind was passing? The similarity be- tween that episode in his life and that episode in her life appeared to indicate that they were destined for each other, inasmuch as this parity of conditions had seemed to exist for the purpose of abrogating the possibility of reproach from one to the other. Gomiecbooks (E(0)