A Silver Brand — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

A SILVER BRAND. ey He forgive me! This once, let-me hear you say it; ina!” ; She was pale as ashes; her whole frame‘ quivered beneath the inward agony. The girl half-shrank ~ away, terrified at such vehemence of passion. “ Auntie Pen,” she stammered, “you frightén me. | I don’t understand you.” - Penelope drew a long breath, as if gathering up strength to conquer herself. She smiled slowly; and drearily. : “No, you do not understand me, poor child—how: should you—bvt you love me and you will try to © forgive me?” ; “I didn’t mean that it was you!” cried Lina, re- morsefully, with a warm gush of tears. “I don’t blame you, Auntie Pen.” ‘ She was strained close and hard against Penelope’s reast. ) “My darling! my precious! try not to! because it hurts me so; and yet I confess that I deserve it— deserve the worst you can say.” | And then she turned her head, and looked off, far off, to the line where sea and sky blended in a misty cloud. Lina watched her silently. She had grown familiar with-the look, and knew that it meant one of Penelope’s deepest moods of abstraction. What would net the young girl have given for the power to look within that busy brain, and follow it wan- dering into the unknown life which it lived alone! She waited as patiently as she might, but finally gave a restless sigh, and nestled closer, calling just - jn the tone she would have used had her friend been in the next room. “Auntie Pen! Auntie Pen!” And with a long-drawn gasp, Penelope came back to her. “Well, Lina?” = “What is to be done? Will they let me go to walk?” “J think so, with me for company.” — Despite her desire to the contrary, Lina’s ingenu- ous countenance fell, | cS (e(@) EComicboo