Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 345: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER. Bot loved to wander, and the pungent odors.of the soil seemed to invigorate her sorrow-stricken soul. She could not sleep during the night, when the winds were howling dolefully through the battle- ments of the old abbey; so, worn by grief, enfeebled by torments, she came to these retired places to woo and enjoy here a repose absent during long _ hours of insomnia, having for her couch a solitary bench and the sky for a canopy. One afternoon she was later than usual; the even- ing was calm and vailed by a fog, not a zephyr stirred the bronze hair of the poor sufferer, who was walking slowly, her hat in her hand, exposing thus her feverish head to the benefit of the pure fresh air. Notwithstanding the sweet tranquillity of this nature in mourning, she could not this day find the least sleep, but refreshed by her promenade, calmed by the profound repose which surrounded her on every side, she felt better. She was preparing to return by a long detour, when she suddenly heard talking in a thicket of neighboring laurels. She soon recognized the voice of one of the large pupils, “the eldest,” as the oldest was called, who was conversing with a nun of the convent. The young girl was a Thessalian, a cousin of Walpurga. de Heiligenthal; her accent and her discourse yet more revealed only too much to Najeska Ivanowna. “How sad and unhappy I am to leave you, my sister,” said the pupil. “But mamma does not wish me to remain any longer in the house which shelters that miserable Mineleko.” “Do not judge so hastily, my daughter, and especi- ally do not be severe, for fear of being unjust. See how gentle and sad this poor unfortunate creature is; she is a model of resignation, never a murmur, Eomicboo CS (E(0)