Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

36 REYNOLDS’ WORKS her hand as she took it off the silver salver and caught the name of Doctor Ferney? It did drop, as if from palsied fingers, for the stupor of dismay seized all in a moment upon Lady Saxondale. Yes, it seized upon her in a moment, but its paralyzing effect lasted only for that moment. She recovered her presence of mind as quickly as she had lost it; that is to say, she had recovered it sufficiently to stoop down and pick up the card, a movement which she accom- plished so rapidly that it even anticipated that of the servant, who likewise stooped to pick it up. The outward and visible evidences of Lady Saxondale’s emotions were so transitory — passing in a swift, brief instant — that the domestic did not notice them, but thought that it was through a pure accident the card had been thus dropped. ‘“Show Doctor Ferney into this room,” said Lady Saxon- dale, and though it cost her an almost superhuman effort to speak with a forced calmness, it nevertheless struck her that her voice was hollow and sepulchral, at least it sounded so unto her own ears. The domestic bowed and withdrew, and the instant he had quitted the library, Lady Saxondale pressed her right hand to her throbbing brows, murmuring, “‘ My God, my God! what will happen next? ”’ A thunderbolt falling upon her head ‘at that instant would have been mercy, for the wildest, most agonizing terrors were agitating in her brain, as she thought to herself that there was but one possible object for which Doctor Ferney could visit her, — an object which menaced her with utter annihilation. Suddenly, however, a brightening, cheering thought flashed in unto her mind. Doctor Ferney loved her, had loved her for many long, long years, was devoted to that mysterious interest of hers which for the instant she had deemed so imperilled, and he would not betray her, — no, she felt assured that he would not. At a glance, too, of her mental vision, she reviewed the circumstances of their recent meeting, and how he had solemnly proclaimed his readiness to lay down his life for her rather than breathe a word that should hurt her. She reflected likewise on the amiability of his disposition, the generosity of his nature, and she thought also of the immense power of her own charms, her own fascinations. By the time, therefore, that the door opened again, Lady Saxondale was herself once Gomilecbooks (E(0)