The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 359: what you’re looking at

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

THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS O¥ A LADY OF QUALITY. eee, ~ RY AS ERAN AWW SS | Ss “Le O® ZAG Vd Mill a \\ CG OWALL HESTER, _ “ Heater, you are mad!” cried Walpole, goaded to the very verge of despair. ‘Stay, I beseech you! Heavens! how pale you are! Oh, come back to your seat! I will do everything you de- sire! I will swear to keep your secret !” ' “ Ah, now you are my friend—my brother once again !”—-and Hester pressed both his hands in her own as she thus spoke: then resuming her place upon the sofa, she said, “ Sit near me again No. 44.—THz Youne Ducuzss. oO —unearer still, for I must speak only in whispers! The walls themselves would have ears for such a fearful secret as this!” — The young man’s face was almost as white as that of the young woman: he gasped for breath —he could not give utterance to a syllable—he felt that he stood upon the threshold of some horrible revelation—and he had already some- thing more than a vague suspicion of what it