Penny Blood Serial Cover — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED DE ROSANN. 69 ig in 1819, I have been told,’? returned the irl. ‘‘Eimbrace me, Felicite—embrace me, dear child! But no—I do not wish that those men should know who I am.’’ , “And who are you?” inquired Felicité in astonish- ment. “Thine uncle!’? answered Belle-Rose solemnly. “My uncle! I always heard he was a fine tall man.”’ “ Oh! yes—and so I was; until misery, my ehild, reduced me to the condition in which you now see me.”’ “‘ Does misfortune make people grow shorter, then?”’ asked the girl, with the most deplorable ignorance de- picted on her countenance. . “ Certainly, niece! I became a foot and a half shorter in one night through excess of wo.’’ ‘¢ Ah! that’s what makes the hump-backed barber, who’s dying for love of mother, so little.’’ ‘To be sure it is. And do you not pity me?’’ “Faith, do I! But how came you with those naughty men, my dear uncle?” inquired Felicité, cast- ing a fearful glance upon the conviets. ‘For doing a good action, my love.” “T thought only bad people were chained to- gether?” | . “OQ no—the good are often condemned unjustly, as I was,”’ continued Belle-Rose. “ I saw two men fight- ing in Paris—I ran up to separate them—they swore I was a thief, and that I intended to take advantage © of their situation to steal their watches; I was accord- ingly arrested and carried off to gaol. I was tried and condemned!” “Poor uncle! and what is that handsome young man, who is chained to you, to be punished for?” asked the girl in as low a whisper as possible, point- ing towards De Rosann. bie “For poisoning a gentleman and his wife, together with their seventeen children,’”’ was the answer, CoOmicoooks (GO)