A Heart's Bitterness — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

r . : ‘ ? ; » a ' perf aOR es . . ; a, Ge ; . } re a he ‘ —¥y te . ss ” ¢ . > ." ae ‘ a eS, ke ? Z : . . - 4 - “ . ¢ # i ® I 7 2 + Pes “¢ — | +e ~ 7 ~ . +. ' ~ : . a , Ps [ t > . : 132 4 HEART'S BITTERNESS. ~ ‘Not a bit of it. Ihave papers to prove all I say. So you didn’t know she had been Mrs. Kemp? Odd that the — - handsome woman and I are on the same track. We'll hunt you together, unless yon buy us off.” ‘“Buy- you off!” thundered Leigh. ‘‘ From and for ~ what?” _ **Tt’s worth some thousands to remain Lord of Leigh, isn’t it?” «That is my birthright.” «©So? Possibly not. Suppose I prove that you are not of Leigh blood at all; or suppose, being Leigh, you are not a lawful Leigh?” | ‘Never! I defy you!” “© Ah, let me read you an item or two.” | The light in the room was waning; but the red sunset from behind the trees that hung darkling across the pool shot upward through the open windows, and dyed the ceil- ing red. ‘The man, a fantastic being, in his suit of dark, large plaid, with much chain, several rings, and a conspicu- ous pin, skipped across the room, and upon the seat of the window, to bring himself into the strongest light, the sun- set glowing over and behind him in ominous blood-red, he drew from his breast-pocket two papers, and crying, _“* Here are the proofs of your dishonor!” waved them over ~ his head. | Leigh darted forward.to wrest them from him. He felt sure he had not reached the window, nor touched his en- emy, when, like a flash, the man sank out of sight. There eee outcry, but the heavy fall of a body into the Black ool. : Leigh leaned far from the window, and saw only the wide turbid circles on the closing waters. His first impulse was to rescue the man. He dashed down the stairs, pulling off his coat as he went. But Helen, in her wild flight, had flung to the heavy ancient door, and the handle had so fixed itself that Leigh’s utmost power could not open it. He could not wrench open a casement, and, after some ten minutes of fruitless effort to release himself, he dashed back to the upper room, leaped from the rear window into an adjacent tree, and so reaching the ground, hurried to search for sign of the fallen man. : He found nothing. As he came, so he had gone—in ab solute mystery, ‘The quieted waters told no tales, but over » comicbooks (€(0)