Bonny Jean, and A Severe Threat — page 207: what you’re looking at

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

. 200 A SEVERE THREAT. speak to have saved his life. With one cold, shaking forefinger he pointed to a certain paragraph, and Hal Dexter stooped and read ‘it slowly : ‘*Di—ED: At Sydney House, near Waltham, on the 14th inst., Ger- aldine, wife of Sir John Sydney, baronet, and daughter of Lionel Vernon, Esq., aged twenty years. ‘The remains were interred in the family tomb of the Sydneys, at Waltham grave-yard.”’ CHAPTER XxX, LADY VENETIA PLEADS. ‘‘Lloyd, hearme. You must/” Lloyd Vernon stood in the luxurious drawing-room of his father’s handsome house in Park Lane. He had seen all that remained of his only sister, or what he believed to be her re- mains, laid away in the great family tomb of the Sydneys ; and then, without an hour's delay, he had left for London. He had lost all trace of Lola. She had disappeared from his life as completely as though he had never known her; and, although his reason warned him that this was best, he felt that he could not remain in the vicinity. Besides, Lady Venetia was at Chan- dos Park, her own princely home, a few miles from Waltham, and he would sooner meet his worst enemy than this fair, false woman, who had laid his whole life waste. So he hurried to London, and on the morning after his arrival at Park Lane, was informed by a servant that a lady wished to see him in the drawing-room. With a wild thought of Zola, he had gone down, to be confronted by Lady Venetia Chandos. The first greeting over—quiet and cold enough, too—fol- lowed by a few stale commonplaces, and then Lloyd turned away with a weary look upon his face. ‘‘Lloyd, hear me!” she panted. ‘‘ You must !” She advanced with the sinuous, gliding motion which was Eomichbooks.co 3