His Other Wife: A Novel — page 266: what you’re looking at

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

258 A MIDNIGHT VISITANT. In his letter to Leda, Croft had enjoined upon her an absolute refusal to give any testimony whatever until com- pelled by the law to do so upon the witness-stand in open court, and, above all, to adhere to her denial of any ac- quaintance with Rachel’s accusations, and his subsequent compact with her. He counted upon Leda’s compliance, not because of — her interest in his acquittal so much as her own desire to shield herself from the ignominy of having been a party to the horrid compact that must forever disgrace and ostra- cize from society the woman who could lend herself to such baseness. His chief anxiety at present was to learn where Rachel had concealed herself, and how she intended to proceed in the prosecution. Not once did his thoughts turn with pity or compunc- tion to the anguish of the bereaved mother, whose ‘soul must be one seething abyss of torture for the unhappy fate of her child—the one thing that bound her wretched life to the world. Now that the business of his interview with his lawyer was over, Croft’s ideas were in some degree released from the painful concentration with which he had been dwell- ing on his condition, and his thoughts wandered to exter- nal objects. | As he cast his eyes round the gloomy little cell, noting its dingy walls, where great black spiders hung in their webs, furnishing a significant topic of meditation, his cEomicbooks.com