Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 76: what you’re looking at

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

68 ALFRED DE ROSANN. which were never swerved from by them, they fore- bore to notice that anything was going on. “My little girl,’ said Belle-Rose, with a serious countenance, “ where are your father and mother?’ ‘Father ’s dead—but mother’s alive,’? was the reply. ‘Your father ’s dead? Alas! alas!’?? murmured the _convict, wiping his eyes: “and the good old lady— how is she?’’ | “Ts it mother that you mean?’’ * Precisely.”’ ‘¢She’s not very old.” “¢ No—no; the young lady, I meant—I knew she was not old; besides, your age proves that she is still in the bloom of youth.’’ “¢ Mother is not alady,neither; she keeps this inn. That’s a lady, who lives at the white chateau yon- der.”’ . “ Well—well—your mother, my dear—how is she?’’ “ She’s got nothing ailing her, except her corns, that I know of,”’ replied the girl ingenuously; “and they didn’t prevent her from going to the neighbour- ing market this morning.”’ ‘¢ And how far off is that market?” ‘¢ About a league across the fields.”’ ‘“ How unfortunate!”’ returned Belle-Rose, assum- ing amelancholy air. “Why?” asked the girl, wondering what could be the meaning of these multifarious interrogations. “Why! my love—why! Do you actually inquire why?—Have you never heard of a relative on your mother’s side——?”’ “Him who was a night-man, do you mean?”’ “No—no,”’ said Belle-Rose, with difficulty sup- pressing a smile. ‘¢My mother’s brother, then—to be sure.”’ “You have never yet seen him?”? whispered Belle- Rose, fearful of proceeding too precipitately. “Not since I was five years old; he went as a GomMichdooksteo