His Other Wife: A Novel — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

<i RACHEL’S COMMANDS. 93 ‘* What, then, have you come for?” ‘*To set your life as wide apart from this fair woman as you set mine from yours. To puta barrier, more deep and ghastly than the grave, between you, and to compel you both to make the future of my child!” ‘‘What can you mean?” cried Croft, the cold sweat gathering on his brow, and the pallor of a great fear on his face. ‘*T mean this: to hold you twain together in. the un- hallowed bonds of an unlawful union, and to make you the instruments of securing to my daughter the place and prifleges in society that are her dues. Henceforth, you, Mathew Croft, are only the custodian of my fortune, in trust for my child; and you, madam, the medium through whom she shall enter and adorn the bright world of which you have been a queen. Fail, either of you, in the faithful and punctilious discharge of these offices, and reap the consequences in instant exposure and ruin.” «How dare you utter such commands to_me, madam, whatever right you may have to govern the conduct of this man!” exclaimed Leda, with proud disdain. ‘‘Disobey those commands, if you like better to take the scoffs of your world, as the dupe of a murderer and bigamist, The alternative is simple enough.” Rachel’s tone was so quiet and so intensely controlled, that it awed them both into silence, At length Croft said, falteringly ; ‘* What do you require?” EComicbooks: (E(@) 3