Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 250: what you’re looking at

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

THE RETREAT IN WALES 233 The marquis indeed felt that the meeting which was about to take place would be under very painful circumstances. Wiping away the tears from his cheeks, and subduing his emotions as well as he was able, Lord Eagledean advanced a little nearer to the dwelling and reached a hedgerow that bordered the garden on the side skirting the road along which he was walking. In a few moments he beheld a lady descending the steps of the front door. She came forth slowly, looking neither to the right nor to the left, but with her eyes bent downward, as if in deepest thought. She was dressed in black, and a sable veil was thrown over her head, but not so as to conceal her features. From the point where the marquis suddenly halted on perceiving her, he could not obtain even the slightest glimpse of that countenance, and yet he felt convinced that this was the Alexandrina of his enduring and faithful love. Yes, the figure was exactly of her stature. It was not bowed by years; it was still up- right as in her youthful days he had known it to be. But it was irom an intuitive presentiment rather than from actual observation that he experienced the conviction that this was she whom he sought. ~- He remained where he was concealed behind the hedge, hoping that she would approach near enough on the other side for him to observe her attentively and well, so that whatever shock might be destined for him from her altered appearance should have passed away ere he revealed himself to her. Descending the steps, she traversed a large grass plat in front of the mansion, and then slowly entered the oeravel-walk which ran behind the hedge. Her steps were deliberate; she advanced like one who was all the time absorbed in profound thought, and who took no notice of the trees, the flowers, and the natural beauties by which she was surrounded. The sun was powerful, and she drew her veil completely over her countenance, so that as she approached nearer to the spot where Lord Eagledean stood, he could obtain no glimpse of those features on which he yearned to gaze again. But her figure was little impaired by the lapse of time. It was not emaciated, it was not re- duced to leanness; on the contrary, it presented all the fine contours of a more youthful period. Could this lady indeed be she whom he had come to visit? She passed by on the other side of the verdant barrier, CONNIE DOOKS (FO)