Beadle's Dime Novels, No. 11 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

o~ 52 THE PRISONER OF LA VINTRESSE. in Mrs. Brown's boarding-house, under the assumed name of Smith, nothing to do, only painful memory for a com- panion. “Tt seems to me she’s of the solitary sort,” Mrs. Brown would say; “she just speaks to nobody, though I can’t think it’s because she considers herself superior. But isn’t she a beauty? and it’s my mind, that she’s seen better days.” Meanwhile, Minerva patiently waited for the captain’s re- turn. The fourteenth passed and the fifteenth, still no tidings. The sixteenth brought Mrs. Brown to Minerva’s door, with an ominously long face. Behind her were heard sobs, it was the good Bandola, and alas! she brought sad news; the captain -had died two days out, of yellow fever, and was buried in the ocean. Minerva felt her heart sink, this was worse than all the rest; she had now no real friend. She took Bandola into her little room, and the two mourned and wept together. The poor girl did not know what she should do now, she said, sobbingly, that she never should find so good a master again, and, oh! how cruel it seemed to throw him into the water, he who had been so kind to her! She had, she further © said, engaged to go still as stewardess on the same vessel, but that was different from what things would have been if the captain had lived. “And I too, must do something, Bandola,” said Minerva, mournfully. “I have but a very little money left, and where am I to get more ?” “Then you have heard nothing from your home,” said Bandola, with a look of significance. ' “Nothing, it is wearing me out,” responded Minerva. “If I could only hear the worst,” she added, with a grieving lip. “You would not go back—why not, and find what you wish to know? It would be delightful to have you in the vessel.” Minerva shook her head. “It is of no use, I can not go back; but I must do some- thing,” she added, with energy, “something to forget. I can not live in this manner, it is killing me.” “What can you do?” murmured Bandola, with sorrowful sympathy. “IT can at least write to the eonsul at Hayana, I wonder I . comliclooks.com