The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 192: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XVI / THE HEAD CONSTABLE Ir was about half-past eight o’clock in the evening that the head constable of Gainsborough alighted from a gig at the gate of Saxondale Castle, and proffered a request to the porter answering his summons that he might be allowed to speak a few words with the dowager Lady Saxondale, adding that if it were in any way inconvenient to her lady- ship, he would call again on the morrow, and that in any case he should not detain her many minutes. Lady Saxondale had shortly after dinner retired to the library, under the pretence of writing letters, but in reality to separate herself from the company of Edmund and Adelaide; for, as the reader may suppose, they did not feel themselves very comfortable in each other’s presence, while anything in the shape of pleasant and agreeable conversa- tion was altogether out of the question. The young lord and his wife were by no,means sorry to be thus rid of the restraint and awkwardness created by her ladyship’s society, and they cared but little what she did or whither she went, for they now felt assured that she was utterly disarmed and completely in their power. Lady Saxondale, we said, was in the library, when a foot- man entered and delivered in precise terms the message which the head constable of Gainsborough had sent in. At the first mention of his name, Lady Saxondale was stricken with a cold terror, a glacial chill which went quiv- ering through her even unto her very heart’s core; but nevertheless, at the distance which the footman was stand- ing from her in the spacious library, he did not perceive that she was thus swayed by any unusual emotion. As he went on speaking, Lady Saxondale’s presence of mind came 176 CONNIE DOOKS (F(0)