Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 190: what you’re looking at

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

i 180 OOTAVIA'S PRIDE entrance, and, spree into the chaise, was driven swiftly away. The guests in the fiwing: room merrily digatahed the countess to learn the success of the wager. That lady found her sister-in-law lying on the floor as cold and white and rigid as a corpse. — CHAPTER XIX. THE MISSING WITNESS. After Maurice Middleton left her, Jane West waited at the station in a state of uncontrollable excitement, despite her calm temperament. The moments dragged as slowly as hours, and seemed presently each one to increase her alarm and deepen her agitation. She had taken a seat at the door of the ladies’ retiring-room, and from thence kept watch with feverish eyes of everything that passed within the building. She knew the moment Mathew Merle aks the thres- hold of the great door-way, and she confronted him the next instant with her indignant countenance. “Sir,” said she, ‘‘do you atone in this way for the mercy of Heaven, which saved you from so many dangers? How dare you be guilty of this great wickedness? Whereis Will Yarrel?” «That is what I have come to ask,” answered he, his eyes burning as angrily as her own. ‘“Do you deny that your false message enticed him away from this place? You may as well drop your mask now. I know you thoroughly—who you are, and how you have pre- tended ignorance of poor Will’s identity,” returned Jane. His thin lip curled with a savage smile. “You are right. It is idle to wear a masknow. - Young - comicbooks co