Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 258: what you’re looking at

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

THE RETREAT IN WALES JAI sending away of yourself and the other faithful servants of the household, and the administration of some medica- ment which paralyzed her ladyship for a whole week, — all these things were done to enable him to carry out his diabol- ical design. For the corpse of a pauper boy was secretly conveyed into the house by night, while Adolphus was borne away to Beech-tree Lodge,—a place possessed by Mr. Everton in the village of Hornsey, and where poor Adolphus remained sixteen years in captivity.”’ Mrs. Jameson was horrified at this statement, and some minutes elapsed ere she could resume her narrative. But at length she continued thus: “As soon as my poor mistress was again convalescent, she hastened to London to be at the town mansion when her husband should arrive from India, and then it was she told me of all that had taken place at the Park. Of course the tidings of Adolphus’s death had already reached us in London, and | can assure you that heads were gloomily shaken, suspicious looks exchanged, and dark misgivings murmuringly whispered amongst us all. But what could we say? What could we do? And I, who was most in her ladyship’s secrets, knew how completely she was in the power of her brother-in-law. Well, the general returned from India. Oh, how altered he was! He never was of pre- possessing appearance, but he came back looking like a wretched old man, with broken constitution and shattered health, all sacrificed at the shrine of his ambition. It was a hard task for my poor lady to maintain anything like com- posure when he conversed with her upon her pursuits during the years of his absence. He was much cut up by hearing of the death of his son, which intelligence, I should observe, had reached him the instant he set foot in England, and therefore previous to his arrival in London. In one sense it was fortunate that her ladyship had an excuse for her _ affliction and her tears, inasmuch as her grief constituted a mask to veil from her husband’s eyes the confusion and the remorse she felt at encountering him again. A few months afterward he died. There was no foul play in his case; he was hovering on the verge of the tomb when. he arrived in England. His brother then assumed the title and took possession of the estates, her ladyship having only a jointure of three thousand a year.”’ EORVICLOOO SS (EO)