Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 143: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 135 it must be remembered that the smallest delinquencies of an exalted character are invariably registered with his virtues; and that the higher the rank of the indi- vidual, the more eager is mankind to detect his pecca- dilloes and expose his inadvertencies. CHAPTER XII. ADVENTURES. So entirely had Jeannette’s song engrossed the at- tention of the inmates of the cottage, that the soup re- mained hitherto untouched, and an hour slipped away without being perceived. But the fresh air of the fields, which had sharpened the appetite of the peasant, was not. to be encountered by an empty stomach: and the potuge soon began to disappear from his plate. Jeannette, Belle-Rose, and the grandmother, followed Claude’s example; and De Rosann, aroused from his heroic delirium by an unceremonious shake from his companions, was fain to imitate the rest. Scarcely, however, was the frugal meal concluded, when a loud knock at the door startled our hero and Belle-Rose: but their alarms were speedily dissipated; for instead of a tall police officer, with clanking weapons, a lad of about fifteen entered the cottage. ‘¢ Well! what possesses the boy,” cried the old wo- man in across tone, “to knock at the wicket, as if he were a fine gentleman who must be invited to en- ter with all due ceremony: and howis it that you are so late? But sit down, Jacques,’’ continued the hag, suffering her voice to relax into a less severe tone than she had at first assumed, “and eat your ditiner. Jean- nette, give your brother a plate, my girl—and let him tell us all the news afterwards.”’ “‘ News, indeed!”’ exclaimed the boy, seating him- C@nnicoookxs (C@