Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 169: what you’re looking at

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

162 A SEVERE THREAT. discarded lover of the bride had suddenly appeared, and had attempted to take her life. The bride's attendants gathered around her; police officers were called into requisition to clear a pathway; the bride, in a state of insensibility, was lifted into the carriage, followed by the baronet, and was driven pre. toward the great gloomy house in Park Lane. Lionel Vernon turned, with a ghastly face, and confronted the intruder, whose sudden appearance had been the signal for all this excitement. There was an ominous gleam in the old man’s deep-set eyes, and he clenched his hands convulsively together. ‘‘Come !”—he ground the word out between his close-shut teeth—‘‘I have an account to settle with you |” He sprang into the nearest carriage ; the stranger followed him without a word, and it rolled away. In obedience to Ver- non’s command, it halted before a large hotel. His face was ghastly white and set in unutterable anguish; his eyes were dilated with horror; his breath came and went in fitful gasps, and there was a cold perspiration upon his clammy brow. ‘‘Come !” he repeated, briefly, as he alighted from the car- riage and entered the hotel, the other man following silently. ‘‘ A private room !” commanded Vernon ; and an obsequious waiter ushered the two into a handsome parlor. Vernon closed and locked the door; then he turned and faced his companion. ‘‘It is true, then, you are not dead,” he sneered. ‘“Not dead, Lionel Vernon,” returned the other; ‘‘and I have come back to unmask your villainy !” The old man could be no paler; he sank into a seat, and glared helplessly into the face of the man before him. ‘‘It is really true, then !” he repeated, slowly, as though his mind could scarcely grasp and realize the situation. ‘‘It zs Howard Ashleigh !” | ‘‘You should not have intrusted your attempt upon my life to other hands, Mr. Vernon,” returned Howard Ashleigh, Eomichbooks.co =) —,