Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 388: what you’re looking at

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

THE CONSERVATORY 371 squire, ‘‘for as you are comparatively a stranger here, we must not leave you alone.’ The youth muttered something, he knew not what, and in a strange state of bewilderment he followed Mr. Hawk- shaw and Juliana out of the conservatory. The terror which at first seized upon him had left a sort of stupor behind; yet it was only on Juliana’s account that he had been thus alarmed, for he still entertained not the remotest suspicion of the attachment subsisting on the squire’s part toward her, or the engagement formed between them. But now that he heard Mr. Hawkshaw conversing with even more than his wonted hilarity with Juliana, as she leaned upon his arm, he felt convinced that nothing had been overheard by him; for he remembered how emphatically the squire had said on the preceding evening, that if he were to meet the lady who had behaved in such a manner to Frank, he could not possibly be civil to her. As for Juliana herself, she was equally well assured that. the squire had not caught a syllable of what was taking place in the conservatory at the time he entered. She attributed that appearance of pallor on his cheeks to the flickering play of the lights, which were partially agitated by some little currents of air which penetrated through the glasswork in the conservatory. The young lady, though still bent upon her project with regard to Frank, was resolved to re- tain two strings to her bow even until the very last, so that should one fail, she might adopt the other. Passing into the saloon, Mr. Hawkshaw conducted Miss Farefield to the sofa where Lady Saxondale was seated, while Mr. Denison intercepted Frank and conducted him to the refreshment-room, for the worthy host was anxious to pay all possible attention to the son of his old friend the Marquis of Eagledean. On returning to the saloon, the youth was introduced to a young lady of great beauty, with whom he danced the next quadrille, and for each of the two following, other partners were also provided by Mrs. Denison. Then Frank recollected the hint he had received from Juliana, to the effect that he was to consider himself engaged to her for the dance next ensuing, but for a moment he hesitated whether to attend to it, or not. He had reawakened from the trance of fascination, he was master of himself once again, he remembered his father’s counsel, and his conscience Gomichoo <S (C(O)