Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 265: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER, 257 CHAPTER XXXVI. NAJESKA IVANOWNA’S COURAGE. An hour passed, perhaps two, and the king did not reappear. Kager to learn what has passed between the king and the terrible old empress, Najeska Ivanowna cannot keep quiet. She arises, and feverishly walks with aregular and continuous step, the lmited ex- tent of her chamber. The noise of her steps frightens her; she stops irresolute, her eyes dry, her manner frenzied, excited by anguish; at last, exhausted by fatigue, she throws herself upon her bed. She en- deavors to sleep; in vain; it has fled forever. She will sleep no more, she says to herself. To this horrible agitation an invincible torpor has succeeded; her head, supported on her burning hand, her body inanimate, she remains there im- movable. All the life of this beautiful creature, but just now all trembling with love and ecstacy, is concentrated in her staring eyes, whose somber wild glance remains riveted upon the door by which her royal husband has disappeared. A very long time passes thus, in expectation. With strained ears, the unhappy creature starts unceasingly; at each moment she believes she hears the king who is coming back to her; but, alone in the silence of this dismal night, the tic-tac of the clock lets the minutes fall, uniformly and regularly, into eternity. “My God! my God! he will return no more!” Agitated, terrified, she feels as if avoid is form- Eomicbooks.com