The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XVIII THE RIVER Lorp SAXONDALE and his wife rambled forth from the castle, the latter leaning on the arm of the former. Adelaide was now completely happy. She was entirely without a suspicion that her mother-in-law, ere taking her departure, had instilled such venom into Edmund’s veins, or that a mine had been prepared above which she was unconsciously to tread. She considered that the desperate warfare of plots and counterplots, duplicities and machinations, which had been waged between Edmund’s mother and herself, was now altogether at an end, that the former had been worsted, and that she therefore remained triumphant. We have already said that the very desperation of Ed- mund’s position, as he himself believed it to be, had served to endow him with a degree of fortitude which astonished even himself; that is to say, a particular kind of fortitude, — the fortitude which enabled him to wear a mask upon his countenance in the presence of his wife, without betraying the secret thoughts and intents which were agitating within. Indeed, in this respect, his hypocrisy was now consummate; and as those who harbour treacherous intents invariably assume some extreme feeling in order to veil them, so was Kdmund’s manner kinder and more affectionate than ever toward Adelaide. She perceived this as they walked forth together, and naturally attributed it to satisfaction at his mother’s departure. “Now, my dear Edmund,” said Adelaide, as she leaned upon his arm, and gazed up with her wonted blandishment of look, “ at length we are rid of that woman who sought to be such a terrible domestic tyrant. I hope you will not be angry that I speak thus of your mother — ”’ 208 CONNIE NO KS (E(0)