Octavia's Pride; or, The Missing Witness — page 203: what you’re looking at

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

I Wie. OF Med fy aD Tak Ppt re SS actin: + ee » Fg a ', ’ »~ <. \ OCTAVIA’S PRIDE. 193 secret. Woe isme! When the power is in an unprincipled person’s hand, how helpless his victim can be! I can do nothing.” ss She paused a moment to turn the melancholy brown eyes imploringly upon his. ‘*My poor child! you shall have some one now to espouse your cause!” cried Maurice, hotly. ‘‘ 1 will defy this Mathew Merle, and save you.” | A mournful smile trembled through her tears. «“Ah, you are so noble and good! But 1 am worn to spiritlessness. Poor Jane was to be my staif and stay, and now she has vanished. Will not something take you away also?” -** No,” eried Maurice, all the chivalry of his noble nature: flaming up within his heart. ‘‘I will devote myself to your service. But tell me all, and when I know the whole, I can judge if the plan I have formed will answer.” — ‘<T might make it a long story, but it will sicken you, and it pains me. It is enough to say he took me where he could work his will without fear of hindrance. He kept me a close prisoner locked in his room. I think he pretended to the landlady that I was not of sound mind. I do not know why he brought me to England, unless to make sure in some way the identity of some claim to which I am positive my birth entitles me. But he persecuted me day after day to obtain my consent to a marriage with George. He tried coaxing and bribing first; told me that his son had come into a great fortune, and could only be happy in taking me for his wife. J laughed the absurd statement to scorn. Then*he was angry, and tried to grind down my spirit with persecutions and privations. Heaven only knows why | was not driven to madness. But I know that I shudder now to recall my mental agony.. I had determined to use every means to escape from him, and twice nearly succeeded. But that woman who kept the house, of whom I was almost as Comicboo <S co