A Heart's Bitterness — page 247: what you’re looking at

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

Ps ore A HEART'S BITTERNESS. Pe Ong te ‘¢ This course would retain for them titles and estates.” ‘‘And if I-refuse and you ruin me, will it pay you to have secured revenge at the price of marriage with a man whom you hate as you do this Kemp?” ‘Hark you! I will never, never be his wife! When I get my revenge, my payment will be other than my hand.” ‘* Look you, Helen—he is rich. I will give you ten thou- sand pounds if you will break down this case, marry him, and go with him to Australia. I will get him a govern- ment position, acknowledge him as a step-brother, receive — you both as my guests; you shall be married here. Let us be friends. Let us make these terms?” | ‘“ Never! never! NEVER!” said Helen, furiously. ‘‘ Now, then, you shall lose all!” ‘“* I will swear to this visit and your statements here.” ‘* And I will fully prove an alidi, and break you down.” ‘‘T WILL NOT go with you, woman. I hate you so con- sumingly that the end would only be murder!” CHAPTER LIV. HE HELD THE PAPER AGAINST THE LIGHT. The Leigh estates and the Leigh title had always been — the objects of Colonel Hartington’s strong desire. Doubt- less Lady Clare Montressor would not have married the | colonel had she not hoped that he would one day inherit — from his younger but feebler distant cousin, Lord Norman Leigh. The birth of little Rupert had seemed to end these expectations forever, when the amazing information — brought by Helen Hope had revived them, and wrought to © _.its highest pitch assurance of immediate possession of the ~ earldom. The story was so simple and clear, the testimony so direct, eine narrow, and apparently conclusive, that Colonel Hartington — entirely believed in it. Still, the colonel, as a man of the ~ world and a man of business, was far from wishing to ap- — pear before the public as the dupe of a pair of knayes, or as — eagerly grasping after a coronet firmly set on the head of its ~ proper wearer; therefore, instead of proceeding to at once © bring the peepee be vs. Leigh case into court, both parties — visers sifted and examined their case in — and their legal y ‘omicbooks.com