Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 305: what you’re looking at

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

288 REYNOLDS’ WORKS “ And you were not mistaken, Elizabeth? ”’ exclaimed Frank. “ But in reference to yourself —” “ Our father will grant Don Diego Christoval an interview the day after to-morrow,’ answered Miss Paton, the rich blood again mantling upon her cheeks, “‘ and I do not think there is any reason to apprehend an unsatisfactory termina- tion to that meeting. To-morrow evening, you know, dear Frank,” continued Elizabeth, speaking more seriously, “ the hands of our father and mother will be united in the holy bond of marriage. The special license is already procured, — the various arrangements are made. But these indeed are few, inasmuch as the ceremony will take place with the utmost privacy. Perhaps this marriage may be followed shortly by several others.”’ “ Oh,” cried Frank, in the sanguine enthusiasm of youth- ful years, ‘‘ how delightful would it be if Adolphus and Henrietta, yourself and the count, and —and — ”’ * Speak it out, my dear brother,” said Elizabeth, with a smile upon her lips and a blush upon her cheeks; “ Juliana and yourself, if we were all to be married on the same day — Well, we shall see.” ‘‘ And now, dear sister, that you have at length learned what love a7 continued Frank, ** tell me, does it not con- stitute a new existence? Is it not a paradise in itself? Does it not seem to transport one, as it were, into another state of being? Oh, you who but so short a time back were almost boasting that your heart was inaccessible to love — Why, I do really believe that all along, from the very first moment you ever beheld your handsome Christoval in the Catalonian - Hills, you really loved him; that is to say, the germs of love were engendered in your heart, but the circumstances not being congenial for their expansion and growth, they re- mained as it. were latent, unknown, unsuspected, but not the less surely implanted there; and it only required a change of circumstances, such as those under which you and Don Diego recently met, to evoke these germs of love into active vitality and a recognized existence.” “There may be some truth in what you say, Frank,” observed Elizabeth, in a subdued voice; ‘‘ yes, there may be,” and for a few moments she reflected profoundly upon the idea which he had suggested. Then, suddenly raising her magnificent dark eyes which had been bent downward, Eomicbooks