Beautiful Rienzi; or, The Secret Vendetta — page 222: what you’re looking at

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

BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. 215 ‘You smile, Ivanilla. Ah, Heaven bless you for these glittering tears—thank you, my little sister. ‘‘ But earth surged in at last. We had met but to part; oceans must roll between us; I must leave this pure, heavenly being, who had crowned me with her love. And I, what was /? This last thought stung me from my mad joy like an adder. I put her from me and leaned against the tree, ghastly with the rush of horror. Wretch that I was to for- get my degradation! *** What has grieved you? ‘Tell me,’ murmured my gen- tle companion, tremulously; ‘you know I have a right to comfort you now.’ ‘Oh, sweet consoler! how strong in her love, and yet how feeble she was—standing there, offering comfort to me/ ““« You are my Victor now,’ she whispered, with a shy and quivering smile; ‘lay half your grief on me. Ah, can you not trust Isolina?’ ‘“<T know not how, she slid within my arms again, and was pressed fiercely to my dark heart, which leaped at the sweet touch, and conquered once more the honor I should haye had. I should have kept my guilty secret and given her back the liberty I had stolen from her: it was selfish in me, when I was sure of her woman’s love for me, to blast her sweet trust with such an ordeal. But when all was told— when she knew that the house of,Joselyn had an ever-present skeleton in its chair of state—that the stain upon its” escutcheon was whispered of and pitied by baser-born churls of yesterday’s making; that, I, the heir of Joselyn, might be confronted at any moment by her who was once my mother, and hissed from my patrimony with the stigma which leaves its victim nameless—when this story of polluting darkness had been poured into the ears of the innocent lady upon whom I had set my degrading seal, once more she took my hand in hers and looked bravely in my face. ‘¢¢ What shall I do to prove that all this makes no differ- ence in my love for you?” she cried, ardently. «©¢ What? Would you still share the fortunes of such a wretch? I exclaimed, incredulously. ; “«« How can I prove that a woman’s heart is deeper than your fears would imply,’ she said again. ‘* And now, Ivanilla, I committed a cruel wrong against the woman whom I loved, in taking advantage of the utter comichbooks (<(0)