Thrice Wedded, but Only Once a Wife — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

24 | THRICE WEDDED. Robert Ellerton—that city dandy. Yes, she choose a shal- low love, of three or four months’ growth, to a devotion of years—but he was rich, and I was poor. But I swear he stole her from me—he stole her from me—the thief that he is | ed The bitter aa ance was too much for the squire, and he sank back nearly fainting in his chair. Ralph sprang up, poured out a glass of wine, and hela it up to hislips. Heswallowed it eagerly, and it revived him. He was about to proceed, when his nephew interrupted - him : “Uncle, do not finish your story to-night. Some other time will do as well; though, for the life of me, I can’t see yet what I have to do with it.” “No, no, my boy; I must finish it now; I should not _ have courage to begin again. Well, they were marr ied, and went to their city home—for he was rich, and lived in great style—while I was left to my loneliness and desolation, with- out a thought or care. But I swore revenge, deep and fear- ful, and since I have had means to secure it, | have sought to keep my oath! For awhile I lost track of them, but fin- ally followed them to this city, though I only heard to-day that Jessie was dead. She died nearly fifteen years ago, and I never knew it until to-day. And to-day I bls begun my work of revenge in earnest.” He then narrated how he had married the children. and sent them home with the certificate made out in due form in their pockets. “Now Ralph,” he continued, ‘‘what I want of you is to help me fulfill my oath. I want you to watch this boy and defeat every plan of his life. Be his evil genius, as it were. — I have given the father a heavy blow in marrying his son to a poor girl, for he is as proud as Lucifer. I don’t care what you do or how you do it, only ruin him, and his girl-wife, — too. 1 want them to experience a little of what I have suf-_ fered, and of what has made me an old man before my time. I look more than fifty, and am not yet forty. In returnfor- your promise to do this I will bequeath you all my fortune. I may not live to see the end of it—Ido not expect to, for I have heart disease, and am liable to die at any time. Will you do it?” _ Ralph had been cry interested in his uncle’ s story, but. comic boo Ks.com