A Heart's Bitterness — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

Pee ERE ot NG Sa Dall Si” Pea SE ea tie tai iy LOR eink ts tet NT mee Sade! J _* 2m 6 wie FES ; Sort a ted Nera > aS ihe Oe y § 8 : } - =n ; ; A HEART’S BITTERNESS, | ) | ° 97 ‘¢ Miss Ambrose!” faltered the old man. ‘* You seemed in a brown study, Adam. I hope nothing is wrong with you?” ‘‘It isthe old story, Miss Ambrose—worry for my mas- ter. You know how it was in Cornwall. I had the care Se a father rather than a-servant. Dye watched all his ife.” 2 . ‘* Yes; I saw him the other day, Adam.” ‘© Did you, madam?” cried Adam, eagerly. «© And told him how happy I hoped he would be.” Adam saw no shadow of regret on the lovely, tranquil — face. Sweet peace looked out of the sunny blue eyes, framed in the wreath of golden hair. | | ‘* But he is not happy, Miss Ambrose,” said Adam. ‘I speak out to you, because of the old time. I hoped things would go differently then, and he would find some one to save him, But itis not my lady’s fault; a sweeter, more inno- cent, forgiving young creature never lived. He has gone to London alone for two days, he says, and to bring back her aunt and cousins to see her. But I have no peace till I see him again. It is like old times to meet you tripping about with your little basket of good things to sick or poor, as you did in your father’s parish.” So Lord Leigh was absent! ‘I'his, then, was a time when Edna might venture in his grounds and try to meet the lonely little wife. If they only could meet, she trusted to the mutual youth and tastes in common to bring them together. Edna Ambrose never met any one who turned coldly from her lovely face and sweet, earnest manner. That very afternoon she set out for a walk in Leigh Woods. Nearer and nearer the house she would draw— — perhaps she would find the deserted mistress of the estab- lishment. ‘Turning about a little wooded knoll where a cluster of beech trees cast a goodly shade, Edna saw a scar- let hammock swinging low between two trees, and beside it, sitting stiffly erect, a great mastiffi—one of the famous dogs of Leigh. He held himself immovable, like a cast- iron dog set up in a garden in some excess of ill taste; but as Edna came softly near he wagged his tale a few times, by way of recognition. All dogs loved Miss Ambrose. In the hammock lay a slender figure, dressed in white ique, trimmed with Irish point and scarlet knots of rib- on. Violet was asleep. Her long, dark lashes swept her (ale) Ecomicbooks