Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER. 105 stance would appear to him ambiguous and he would pass from suspicion to certitude. It was more prudent then to tell himall. She decided to do so, and immediately sent Glascha to beg the prince to come to her. If Najeska Ivanowna was pale, Mineleko was livid. He had reflected a great deal during the night. The author of this anonymous letter and the murderer was without doubt the same person; but to deliver this letter to the magistrate was a positive peril for Najeska, if, by a frightful hazard, she was the accomplice of the murderer. What an atrocious disgrace, both for her and for him! Although tortured by the thought that he was thus deceiving justice, and was allowing the mur- derer to escape unpunished, on account of his wife, whom he would shield at any price, he could not act otherwise. His anger against Najeska was terrible, but, how- ever, the more it increased the more his passion and his love for her increased. When he entered, although self-contained and very courteous, his wife was perturbed; she had the presence of one of those misfortunes of which the expectation alone freezes you. “You have sent for me? What do you want of me, dear Najeska Ivanowna?” said he, with a dia- bolical smile. Madame de Mineleko, frightened by this insane conduct which, in spite of the very evident desire of her husband to subdue, was manifested in him, felt dying in her throat the words which she wished to pronounce; she was only able now to look at him with terror. Eomichbooks.com