Her Faithful Knight — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

A Story of London. 53 “That evening he did not appear at the theatre, but a messenger came in haste to inform the manager that Mr. Trevelyan was lying at his lodgings dangerously wound- ed by a pistol shot in the head. Every one looked at me, the men with interest, the women with open hostili- ty. I felt sick with anxiety and self-reproach, yet how could I have acted differently? “That night I called at his lodgings ;-he was delirious, the landlady assured me, and calling constantly on my name. She begged me to see him. In her presence I did so. Sergius was deadly pale, and his head was cov- ered with a blood-stained bandage. It was only a flesh wound, as I afterward ascertained, but at the time I thought he was dying, and wept bitterly, as did the land- lady. He had meant to kill himself, he told me, being unable to endure the thought of life without me, and he should certainly die that night unless I solemnly prom- ised I would marry him when we arrived at Sheffield in ten days’ time. _ “Even then, when I believed his life hung in the bal- ance, I entreated him to let me confide in you. But he would not hear to it, and became so terribly excited that the landlady upbraided me for my cruelty in being hard onadying man. The woman knew quite well what I did not know, that he was not dying at all, or even seriously injured ;‘but Sergius easily acquired the sympathy and affection of all women who personally attended upon him. “Before I left the house I had consented to become his wife on his own terms, and on the last day of our stay in Sheffield we were married very quietly early in the morning at a church in the town, the only witnesses being the clerk and a pew-opener. “At first Sergius appeared absolutely happy and con- tented. He loaded me with caresses, showed an inex- CONMIGOOOKS (E(0)