The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 300: what you’re looking at

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

A STRANGE SCENE 283 until this day. And/yet, while on the one hand he could scarcely doubt that such was the point to which her lady- ship’s allusions tended, there was nevertheless a strange misgiving in his mind that it were possible for him to inter- pret her words wrongly, and that everything she was saying might bear another construction. He was confused, he was bewildered; he longed to speak, to question her, to arrive at some certainty on the point, and yet he feared to give utterance to a single word, lest he should be betrayed into mistake or error. His position was most embarrassing, most painful, and Lady Saxondale could not help seeing that it was so. ‘“ William,” she said, and every fibre in his frame thrilled with emotion as he heard himself thus addressed a second time this day by his Christian name from woman’s lips, for vividly was brought back to his recollection the ecstatic delight he had ere now experienced when that same Christian name was pronounced in the melting music of Florina’s own voice, “ William,’’ repeated Lady Saxondale, “ tell me, wherefore are you thus moved? Why do you listen to me in such deep embarrassment, I might almost say with pain? Is it possible, I once more ask, that you do not comprehend me? ”’ “No, no,” he cried, vehemently, ‘‘ I do not comprehend you. For Heaven’s sake, explain yourself! ”’ “ Oh, why will you drag from my lips, in the incompetent form of words, those feelings that gush upward from the heart? For the feelings themselves are full of ardour and passion, but words are cooled by the breath on which they are wafted. But if I must be thus explicit, understand me then, at last,” and after a moment’s pause, Lady Saxondale added, with strong accentuation, ‘‘ William Deveril, I love you! ”’ Although from the instant Lady Saxondale had begun this last speech the young artist was prepared for the avowal just made, yet when it did fall from the lady’s lips, and that so abruptly, too, he started, and an ejaculation of dismay escaped him. But even then he doubted whether he could have heard aright, or whether his ears had deceived him; and he continued for two or three moments gazing in wonderment and uncertainty upon Lady Saxondale, so that she, with that obtuseness of perception which even the most keen-witted females are liable to in the affairs of the CONnnIEOOoOKS (FO)