A Heart's Bitterness — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

Pea rere A HEART’S BITTERNESS. Quiet, quiet, was the warm May day, a true forerunner of the summer. Violet had passed in the second hour of her slumber; when a stealthy step came around the cottage; the door was softly pushed open, and a queer figure entered the still room—a short, spare man, in a flannel dressing- gown, carpet slippers, and with a velvet cap pulled forward to his bushy eyebrows, giving his face a singular, sinister appearance. His beard was long and ragged, as if never visited by razor or scissors; his eye had the wildness of in- sanity. He went straight to the dame’s work-basket; and not finding what he wished, jerked open the table-drawer. The noise woke Violet, whose slumbers had from child- hood been carefully guarded. She lifted herself on one elbow—her beautiful hair disheveled over her shoulders— and seeing the strange, humble cottage room, the coarse if clean bed, and the grotesque man, she gave a scream, The man whirled about, and stood looking at her, as if . highly delighted. ‘“Who are you?” shrieked poor Violet.. “The wolf, my angel, the wolf! and you are dear little Red Riding Hood, asleep in her grandmother’s bed! Your grandmother is out, isn’t she? Hope she’ll never come back. Meanwhile I can eat you.” , - He showed a double row of great white teeth, gleaming from under his mustache. ' Violet had never seen anything so hideous. She was so frozen with horror that she could neither move nor speak. ““See my head! Handsome, ain’t it?” cried the man, and snatching off his cap, he showed a shaven portion of scalp with a great red scar across it. ‘‘ Looks as if an Indian had got after me, don’t it? Where does your fool grandmother keep her knives? Here’s one! Shall I do it for you, or for me, or for both of us?” Violet gave an agonizing shriek.~ A loud and clear voice from without answered her: *¢ Coming!” | The man dropped the knife, and crept under the table. ‘* How did you get here?” cried Dame Magery, dashing in, and dragging him forth. ‘This was atime for you to break out! You're trickier than Satan, indeed you are.” She marched him off—he making no resistance. Pres- ently she returned to the trembling Violet. _ Comicbooks. co