Penny Dreadfuls, 1899 · page 249 of 295
Lady Evelyn — page 249: what you’re looking at
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A Pe : . MF) Gute Aa 4,2) “4 A TA a oe” va , eat te Te * we Pe ir a as “409 ek a ty ae rive is - hatte} TAN, Oi Ad Pe OR. eG & Bass oe. So” Be ee F . Ly Var . + ‘ . Why yt : Woe wd te at nr ta) % syS eh / “Ee. ' as - cowering man, and his eyes fell belore the iontnine glances of those flery eyes. “Twenty years have passed. You have prospered ; the world has gone well with you; wealth, rank, honor have been yours. I have been an alien and an outcast, a felon and a wanderer over the world, without faith 1n man or trustin woman. You took from me my honor—dearer to me than life—the woman I loved, the title I should have worn, my life itself, if you could. You know the old Ger- man proverb: ‘The mill of the gods grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly small.’ You have run the leneth of your tether; it is my turn row.’ His voice rang, his eyes flashed. The stricken wretch before him seemed to shrivel up in the scorching flame of that lightning glance. 41 hold in ae hand the paper that will strip you of wealth and rank and honors, and all you hold dearest on earth. It is mine to drive you forth from this house, with the scorn and hatred of all'therein. Your wife’s love you - never had. No, Gerald Desmond, that triumph never was yours. On your bridal-day, with wide leagues of ocean between us, she loved me still. Your daughter’s heart 1s mine to-day—that proud and peerless daughter, who, when she learns the truth, will abhor the man she once calied father.”’ , A cry like the cry of a wounded animal broke from the man before him at this last bitter blow. “Oh, God!” he said; “I deserve it! but have mercy, Roderick Desmond!” “I left America,’ Roderick Desmond went on, stern as Rhadamanthus, “‘to seek my vengeance on you-——nay, not __-vengeance—justice. I left, determined to find William Morgan and wring the truth from his guilty heart. I came here; | met your daughter—the Inez u’Alvarez of ~ my youth again; and from the first moment we met [| MAN Ti Ase loved her, That love made me blind and mad. She was bound to another; she could be nothing to me; yet for her _ sake I resolved to spare the wretch who was her father. I said: “Kathleen is in heaven; no vengeance will bring her - tomenow. For myself, I can die as T have lived, an hon- est man at least. I will leave this place; I will leave him ke. God, and her to the man she is to wed.’ And I would _ have deeb ines word ; t Menese have es a ae omicbook ks.co va “+! i PPh me est tay a her eas SLAM aN a LANE, OAS erie: hoe pH EMA st net i saci eG) hid kal CLS Wp