Thrice Wedded, but Only Once a Wife — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

THRICE WEDDED. see 131 ‘What have you done with him?” “‘He is safe, where I can clap my hands upon him the moment I want him.” ‘‘Where is he, I ask you ? Oh! you will not murder my boy!” shrieked the agonized father. ‘‘Murder him? No!” replied his foe, with a sneer, ‘I would not have him die on any account. I should feel deeply disappointed should anything happen to him. I want him to live, and drag out a miserable existence, as I have done, without the cheering smile of one he loves; I want him to see her the wife of another, and let his heart wither and die within his breast, and to have life become a dreary, wretched burden, almost too tedious to be borne.” “Oh, Heaven! Is it possible that such wicked heartless- ness can dwell upon this.fair earth? Is there no mercy in your hard heart?” he cried, with a look almost of despair written upon his pale features. ‘“No, not an atom! Was there mercy in your heart for me when you stole Jessie Almyr almost from my arms?” asked the vile wretch, with a wicked leer. Poor Mr. Ellerton dropped into his chair, groaning in anguish. Oh, could he but burst his prison bars, what direful vengeance would he wreak upon his tormentor! He would trample him into the very dust; he would grind him to powder, for this shameful wrong. | Some moments elapsed in silence, while each was busy with his own thoughts, the squire full of irrepressible joy, and his captive’s heart beating with sad despair. At last the squire spoke: ‘“You seem to be enjoying this little drama so much, my friend, that I will proceed with it to the end. I have an- other cunningly devised fable to relate to you. As I said before, you know who my nephew is, and what his true name ought to be. JI have made him acquainted with that fact, and planned a way for him to obtain it. I made a few alterations in the story to suit my own arrangements, how- ever. I will explain why he was so ready to join mein my plans for your destruction. I told him that you were his father; that you pretended to marry his mother, who was my cousin; that you lived with her until you saw my darling, when your fickle heart turned to her, and her pretty face told her that your marriage was only a farce, and you wanted won you from your fidelity to his mother. ‘Then you coldly » ere) EComicbooks