Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XItl CONTINUATION OF LADY BESS’S HISTORY “THE fortnight passed away, and during this interval I avoided as much as possible finding myself alone with Don Diego Christoval. He saw that such was my en- deavour, and with a delicacy which I could not help appre- eiating he no longer asked me to join him in his evening ramble, though at meal-times his attentions toward me were most assiduous. When those two additional weeks had expired, I waited anxiously for some word or sign indicative of a removal, and I was well pleased when I heard Don Diego give orders one evening that on the following day we were to set out. Accordingly, at an early hour in the morn- ing, the encampment was broken up; the horses which belonged to the band, and which were kept in an immense cave serving the purpose of a stable, were brought forth. There were steeds’enough for us all, women included, and even then there remained a couple to serve as pack-horses for the conveyance of the tents and the baggage. We pro- eeeded slowly, in consequence of the difficult nature of the ground which we had to traverse. I rode at the head, in company with Don Diego, and the time passed rapidly away, thus beguiled by his agreeable conversation. I could see that he loved me, that he entertained, indeed, a pro- found and adoring passion for me, but I reciprocated it not in the slightest degree. If ever there were a man capable oi making an impression on my heart, it was Count Diego Christoval, but I experienced no tender feeling toward him. Kiven at the time I somewhat wondered at this, making» it a subject of self-congratulation; and I thought mine was a heart altogether inaccessible to love, or else that I had never as yet encountered the individual who was to win 129 connicloooks (C(O)