EAST LYNNE

by Mrs. Henry Wood




PREPARER'S NOTE

This text was prepared from an 1883 edition, New York: John B.
Alden, Publisher.




EAST LYNNE



CHAPTER I.

THE LADY ISABEL.

In an easy-chair of the spacious and handsome library of his town-house,
sat William, Earl of Mount Severn. His hair was gray, the smoothness
of his expansive brow was defaced by premature wrinkles, and his once
attractive face bore the pale, unmistakable look of dissipation. One of
his feet was cased in folds of linen, as it rested on the soft velvet
ottoman, speaking of gout as plainly as any foot ever spoke yet. It
would seem--to look at the man as he sat there--that he had grown old