Beautiful Rienzi; or, The Secret Vendetta — page 65: what you’re looking at

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

58 BEAUTIFUL RIENZLI. He was weeping—I could not. «© Where is she?” I asked, mechanically. «‘She can’t be found,” this in a husky whisper; ‘‘the man who found the body says she must have escaped. I need not look for her, Iva!” he said, in a curiously helpless voice, ‘‘the officers of justice are after her—if she is alive, they will find her.” ‘* Who told you this, father?” | << They were talking about it at the Exchange,” he groaned. “T was here and there and everywhere, all night long, try- ing to trace them; young Lindhurst was with me until five o'clock. It was he who came to me an hour ago and said the merchants had a queer story among them on ’Change; some parties coming in from Greely’s Mills where the accident occurred, brought the news. The young man’s mother has applied to have her arrested; a band of detec- tives went out this morning to see Mrs. Beaumont and hear the particulars. Strange, isn’t it, that the bodv was found not half a mile from Mrs Beaumont’s house? What could your sister want there.” «Father, what are you going to do?” I whispered, help- lesslv. ‘**[ will try to find my poor girl; I shall not leave her to be hunted down by the law. Oh, my child! my: pride! I was happy when my eyes fell on her—never father loved child as I loved that girl. Oh, my darling, come back to your poor old father—don’t be afraid of him!” ‘‘ Father,” I said, reverently kissing his hand, ‘‘comfort yourself with the thought of her innocence. ‘his misfor- tune is verv heavy, but Heaven wil! bring it all right again, since poor Isolina was quite guiltless of any wrong, from be- ginning to end. Comfort yourself, dear father.” While I was speaking, I had been debating with my- self whether I was justified in keeping silence longer on the subject of my sister’s mysterious movements ever since ‘ the advent of Cecil Beaumont, and I reasoned that as long _ as there was a chance of this breach of confidence throwing a light upon the subsequent events, which might restore her to us, it was my duty tocommunicate what I knew to my father. ; Inwardly praying, therefore, that the ‘‘ happiness of this family”? would not be destroyed by what I was about to re- late—as she had declared it would—but would rather be re- Oo Eomicbooks:co