Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 345: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXIX HAWKSHAW HALL As if flying away from a spot where the spells of a worse than Circean enchantment were to be avoided, Francis Paton sped across the fields, reckless of the course he was taking, and having no thought for anything but the mag- nitude of that disappointment which had succeeded the bright hopes so recently entertained. . Indeed, he hurried onward as if for the purpose of outstripping that very thought, — a thought which kept pace with him, haunting him, circling him roundabout, appearing here, there, and everywhere, racking his brain, torturing his soul, sending pangs through his heart, making him feel as if the earth had nothing that he now need live for. In this manner the unhappy youth sped along through the fields for more than half an hour, until at length, wearied and exhausted, he threw himself upon a bank beneath a verdant hedge, and covering his face with his hands, burst into tears. This outpouring of his sorrow proved a relief, and by degrees he found himself enabled to reflect with comparative calmness upon everything that had just occurred. But for the first few moments he could scarcely bring himself to believe that it was all a reality; it appeared like a dream. Was it possible that Juliana had never loved him as he could only wish to be loved? Was it possible that he had merely served her sensual fantasy, and that he had been regarded as one who would accept the lot of a profligate lady’s para- mour? Oh, that he should have been insulted by such a degradation! Oh, that he should have been subjected to such a humiliation! To have been a liveried lackey in her mother’s service was mortifying enough, now that his circumstances were so altered, but to be deemed so lost to all honourable 328 Gomilchoo cS (Eo) — tty,