Beautiful Rienzi; or, The secret vendetta — page 173: what you’re looking at

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

168 BEAUTIFUL RIENZI. Nelson opened the door. His face was glowing, and his voice animated; our excitement had infected him, | ‘Shall I drive home, or straight on? The little buggy is just ahead down in thenext hollow. Icould catch up in ten minutes, ma’am.” “Straight on, then,” said my mother, without a mo- ment’s hesitation. ‘‘ We must see the lady in the carriage.” He sprang to his seat, and Silverlea vanished from my eyes. CHAPTER XXII. A WILD GOOSE CHASE, ‘‘God gave you that tongue of yours, and set it between your teeth to make known your true meaning, not to be rattled like a muffin- man’s bell.” —CaRLYLE. A train left Shirley Sands, at half-past one, and from the haste in which the carriage was flying it seemed as if the lady intended to elude us by catching the train; we had six miles to go, from the gate of Silverlea; it was a quarter to one, now. On, on! down into a hollow, where the surly blast sud- denly missed us, and howled over our heads in the upper current; then out on the long sand beach, and through the crawling foam by a short cut, and up a long hill before we came in sight again of the pursued. : ‘What are they doing?” cried my mother, dropping the front window; ‘‘do they seem to see us, Nelson?” ‘*Don’t know, ma’am; they keep too snug. Oan’t see nothing, ma’am, but a big, black umbrella, and the little horse a-spanking it!” He urged on the already excited bays, and slowly, imper- ceptibly, we gained upon the buggy. ‘‘She is without doubt trying to escape us!” ejaculated my mother, after watching speechlessly; ‘‘and oh, horrors! she may be successful! We are but a mile from Shirley Sands; and it is twenty minutes past one. She has but to rush into the station, secure a ticket, and be away before our very eyes!” I wrung my hands and gazed forth. The piercing shriek of the coming train broke through COMICOOO S (©)