Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 127: what you’re looking at

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

120 A SEVERE THREAT, quickly. ‘‘ His letters are addressed to our house in London, where he believes me to be; they are forwarded to me at this place, and mine to him are read, revised, and mailed to him from London. Far away in America, he does not dream that his only sister—his motherless sister—is the victim of a fathers cruelty.” _ “Miss Vernon!” ‘‘Tt is a matter of resistance. Let me explain. My father swears that I shall marry a certain nobleman, Sir John Sydney by name, and / swear that I will die first. It is the clashing of two strong wills, you see,” and she smiled bitterly, but it was like a gleam of wintry sunshine on her small, pale face. ‘‘ Mr. Ashleigh, I hate that man,’”’ she went on, panting and breath- less, her eyes shining; ‘‘I hate’ Sir John Sydney—Aate him— HATE him! I would die a thousand deaths before I would consent to marry him, mean, cruel, relentless tyrant that he is ! I am only eighteen,” she went on, wringing her white hands piteously, ‘‘and he is past fifty! Yet my father determined that I should be Lady Sydney, and finding that I would not con- sent, has made me a prisoner here; and here I am to remain, he says, until I come to mysenses. I shall be a very old woman when that day dawns,” she added, bitterly, ‘‘if to be sensible means to marry Sir John Sydney.” Her beautiful eyes flashed proudly; her pale face wore a crimson spot on either delicate cheek ; her slender form was drawn up erect and haughty ; and the two white hands were up- lifted with a tragic gesture worthy of Rachel. Howard Ashleigh gazed upon her beautiful face with his heart. in his eyes. All the fervor and passion of his Southern nature was a-thrill at sight of this beautiful girl, so hardly dealt with, and he longed to tell her the truth—how he had come from a distant home with a hope dawning in his breast to win her for his wife. That strange incipient madness called love had grown up in his heart like some rare tropical plant, in the long years which had passed since they had met. Many a night, when’ he ~ “Ccomicbhooks.co 38 = gi well ..