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Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915

"Phantom Fortune, a Novel"

'
'Yes,' cried the paralytic woman, suddenly lifted out of herself, as it
were, in a paroxysm of fury, every feature convulsed, every nerve
strained to its utmost tension; 'yes, this is Lord Maulevrier. You have
heard the truth, and from his own lips. You, his only son's only son.
You his granddaughter's husband. You hear him avow himself the
instigator of a diabolical murder; you hear him confess how his
paramour's husband was strangled at his false wife's bidding, in his own
palace, buried under the Moorish pavement in the hall of many arches.
You hear how he inherited the Rajah's treasures from a mistress who
died strangely, swiftly, conveniently, as soon so he had wearied of her,
and a new favourite had begun to exercise her influence. Such things are
done in the East--dynasties annihilated, kingdoms overthrown, poison or
bowstring used at will, to gratify a profligate's passion, or pay for a
spendthrift's extravagances. Such things were done when that man was
Governor of Madras as were never done by an Englishman in India before
his time.


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