Beautiful Rienzi; or, The Secret Vendetta — page 257: what you’re looking at

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

250 BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. ‘¢ She then described exactly where we were to fly, and what duties I was to perform. These details took a long time. ‘<I haye one question to ask,’ I said, when she was finished. ‘Why did you make me believe that my half- brother, Cecil, was dead?’ : ‘She laughed a short, exultant laugh. «© Yes, recall it!’ exclaimed the unhappy woman. Oh, it was sweet, andgood to see. How it wrung Guiseppe’s heart. How it whitened his hair. How it broke his stately presence. Oh, it was good.’ «<*Come away, and let us never see him more,’ I mur- mured, terrified at her vehemence and weeping with horror. . <<* No, I would like to see Mrs. Rienzi, and her daughter first,’ she answered, with an instant return of her quiet, naturalmanner. ‘I have a small debt to pay them.’ ‘«‘ She spoke so mildly that I was deceived, and gladly con- sented to stay, that I might behold you for the last time, though I dared not bid you an open farewell. ‘“She told me exactly the moment in which I was to slip from the room and steal down to wait on the road for her. «When she would say, ‘I have spent a very pleasant fore- noon with Miss Rienzi,’ I was to rise and go out. ‘We were to fly immediately to this place, which, being in the very heart of the forest, she said would defy detec- tion. ‘‘ After waiting until the first vigilance of the pursuit should be over we were to leave the country. ‘«< She was still in the midst of her plans when you arrived. I was suddenly made aware of some concealed motive for all these plans of immediate flight, when I saw my mother rapidly slip a ring on her finger, just as you entered. My foster-mother only bowed at the door, and did not shake hands; you, coming in after her, put vour hand in the ex- tended hand of the pretended Mrs. Ringwood; it darted through me like a knife that the ring was poisoned when I marked the prolonged pressure. How relieved I was to find no mark: on your hand, my poor darling. Your glove saved you. ‘«Hvery movement of my mother inspired me with terror. I resolved not to leave her with you, for I saw she was already unsafe. When she said the words which were the comicbooks:co