The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 339: what you’re looking at

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

O22 REYNOLDS’ WORKS there I was again conducted into her presence. She was seated in a splendidly furnished apartment, with those two other ladies who were by her bedside on the former occasion, and these two ladies, having caressed me, quitted the room with the gentleman, leaving me alone with the lady. I was then eight years old. She asked me if I recollected her, and when I replied in the affirmative, she inquired if I had ever thought of her since I had seen her last. I assured her that I had often and often thought of her, that I had eried at night when remembering how she had wept over me, and that I had often dreamed I saw her bending over my couch and looking kindly upon me. Oh, how fast her tears fell as I told her these things, and she was such a beautiful lady! I loved her so, and I felt so happy when she strained me in her arms and embraced me. On this occasion she kept me with ner for several hours, and it was evening when the gentleman of whom [ have spoken came to fetch me away. The lady appeared almost frantic at parting from me, and I recollect that she exclaimed more than once, ‘ Poor boy! perhaps I shall never see thee again.’ I cried very bitterly, for I felt that I should have liked to live with that lady altogether. She cut off a lock of my hair, and then, having embraced me again and again, consigned me back to the care of the gentleman of whom I have spoken. ‘The carriage was in readiness at a side door, and as I was whirled away from that mansion, I felt so truly unhappy that my young heart seemed as if it would break. ‘The gentleman said little to console me, for although he was not exactly cross, yet he was reserved and distant. We travelled for a few hours, and at length stopped at a hotel in some town, where we passed the night. On the following morning our journey was resumed in the carriage, with post-horses, and in the middle of the day we reached Southampton. It was here that my sister was at school, and I was to be placed at the same establishment. But here I should explain that this academy was kept by a gentleman and his wife, who divided it into two branches. ‘The former conducting a boys’ seminary, and the latter a school for young ladies, they having two large houses which adjoined each other. It was in the male department of the academy that I was placed. My sister, who was now sixteen, and whom I had not seen for two years, had grown wondrously. CONNIE OO KS (E(0)