Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

\ SIR RICHARD STAM7ORD 99 too devotedly, too tenderly, to thwart her in anything that afforded her gratification. Neither did the slightest sentiment of jealousy animate me when I saw that Ramsey was constantly by her side, — ever her partner in the dance, her companion in equestrian excursions, and her right-hand neighbour at the dinner-table. But 1f I ever reflected at all upon the subject, I saw nothing improper in such as- siduity on the part of a young man whom many circum- stances placed almost on the footing of a brother to us both. Thus three or four years passed away; and I became so accustomed to the gay, I might even call it dissipated life, which we led, that pleasure grew as necessary to me as 1f I had plunged into it voluntarily, instead of being drawn into the vortex by the example of a wife whom I adored. In the meantime, Martin was constantly assuring me that the bank was in .a highly prosperous condition; and, as I never interfered with him in the management of the business, I had not the slightest suspicion that the affairs were otherwise than as he represented them. Indeed, the luxurious mode of life maintained by himself and Ramsey appeared to confirm the statements thus made to me, as it never struck me they were capable of living beyond the incomes produced by their legitimate share of the profits. But a storm, a fearful storm, was brewing over me, ready to burst with an appalling violence.” Sir Richard Stamford again ceased speaking for a short period; and Page began to imagine that the dreadful charges subsisting against the baronet would be disposed of in such a manner as to shift the burden of guilt entirely from his shoulders to those of others. “Yes, the dark clouds were gathering rapidly,’’ resumed sir Richard; “and I beheld them not — suspected them not. Oh, how terrible is the fury of that tempest which explodes so suddenly upon a dead calm, and without even the previous warning of a single drop of rain! Thus was it in my unfortunate case; and I must now summon all my courage, all my composure, all my self-command to aid me in approaching the fearful incidents of Monday last. I rose on that day with a heart as light and free from care as 1f there were no such thing as adversity in the world; as 1f no storm ever swept over the unruffled ocean of life. Eleanor was gay, tender, and affectionate as usual, — nay, ) EOmicdooks (©)