Lady Evelyn — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

ord rid 4 7. a P Fire ae ss .° Paes? | oa ¥, > 4 ae a a Po do you mean’? Has papa on ee Ts 2s & we ya “? - a 4 2). Vor, L /. ee paren “The Sect SE pe Past. ae tt The Sale face of the countess darkened; a strange olit-. ter came into her eyes. “Tt is one of your papa’s secrets, my dear. He has many. Ido not think he will ever visit Clontarf of his own free will again.’ “And why? Mamma, why is this estrangement be- tween him and your Is there some dark and. hidden se- cret’in the life of the Earl of Clontarf? Why does he wear that darkly brooding face? Why does he always look so gloomily stern, so moodily unhappy? He never laughs; he never smiles; he is ever wrapped in vloom; he looks at me sometimes as though he feared me, It seems strange, mamma, but it is true.’ “It is not strange,’ Lady Clontarf said, that glitter shining in her black eyes. “He does fear you.” “And why?” “Because, my daughter, you look at him with the eyes: of the dead!” “Mamma!” 3 “Oh, my love! my daughter! there has been terrible, terrible wrong done in the past! My life has been blighted, my heart broken, and another heart that loved me—the noblest, the bravest, the best that ever beat in man—stilled forever in death. You have the eyes of the dead—the blue, bright eyes of Roderick Desmond, the plighted husband of my youth, the one love of my life- time. My child! my child! but for you I should have died or gone mad in my misery long ago.” “Mother !” “Wild words, are they not? I have hidden, or striven to hide, my trouble from you and the world for many a weary year, but I must speak at last. Oh, my darling! my life has been a very bitter one—a long, cruel mar- tyrdom dragged on for your sake. Thank God! the end is very near now.’ “Mamma! mamma!” her daughter cried, wildly, “what “Hush! not a word! He is your father, and he loves you. Once he loved me, too; but I— My heart was another’s before I ever knew him. My heart has been with that other all these years in his unknown grave.’ “He is dead, then, this other of whom you speak ?”’ “Dead for twenty jong years, my daughter—most eae = Comicbooks:.co