Beadle's Dime Novels No. 3: Myra, the Child of Adoption — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

be 18 MYRA, THE CHILD OF ADOPTION. acts of some men perfectly natural in their seeming. “Here is something to repay the trouble we may occasion.” The turnkey reached forth his hand eagerly for the silver coin which he supposed the stranger was about to offer him, but when he saw a bright piece of gold glittering in his palm, the sudden joy of his heart broke with a sort of gloating fero- city over his face, and with a low chuckle he folded his other hand over the gold, and began to rub the palms together, with the coin between them in a warm clasp, as if he thought thus to infuse some portion of the precious metal into his own person. Ross and his companion had stepped within the cell, and thus, clouded with semi-darkness themselves, watched the man, whose face was fully revealed in the broadly-lighted corridor. “Tt will do,” whispered Ross, smiling, “ it will do.” “ Yes,” said the other thoughtfully ; “he is one of those who would sell his soul for money.” The man said this with the air of one who reflected sadly upon the infirmities of human nature, and really felt shocked at the gross cupidity that himself had tempted; and so it was. He did not reflect that he himself was there for no purpose on earth, but to barter Avs own soul for the very yellow dross, only in a larger amount; that he was ready to yield to this man’s bartered treachery ; that all the difference between him- self and the man he tempted, lay in the price which each set upon his integrity. But the great villain despised the lesser sincerely, and sighed that human nature could be so degraded. So it is all over the world. Those who ‘shroud their crimes in purple and fine linen, ever do and ever will look down with benign contempt on those who fold lesser crimes scantily in poverty and rags; so scantily that the world sees them as - they are, coarse, rude, and glaring. Thus, shaking their heads and sighing over the degeneracy of the human heart, these two arch-villains entered the cell of De Grainges, the bigamist, leaving the officer without to gloat over his piece of gold. ' A tall man, pale from confinement, and yet possessed of a certain air of languid elegance, sat within the cell writing. He looked up, as the two visitors entered, and regarded them with . GConmicdooks.com