His Other Wife: A Novel — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

144 THE PLOTTERS. ‘‘Let me cut them for you; they will hurt your hands, said Julian, who had arisen; and, as he spoke, he took her fingers from the obstinate stem she was. trying to twist from the vine, and held the little hand for a second while he detached the spray with his knife. Careless as the action seemed, and apparently intent as he was upon gathering the flowers, Vernois was not the man to miss one shade of the quick color that rose to Faith’s cheek, nor the light, tremulous movement of the ° slender fingers imprisoned in his clasp. But Faith had no dream of his. consciousness, so non- chalant was his expression and his tone, as he said, loosing her hand, and winding the long wreath of golden blooms about her white straw hat: “Vou might pass for a Greuze shepherdess now, with your short, bright skirts, and the crown of blossoms round your head—eh, Miss Draper?” ‘‘T often think she should have belonged to. Kiebadlie and dwelt only with folks who were simple and true,” re- plied Alice Draper, sending the direct glance of her clear: - blue eyes into the half-sinister ones of her interlocutor. The governess was so earnest a little Puritan that her face always expressed all that she felt, and Julian saw that her answer carried its covert meaning. He laughed satirically, as he said: ‘‘And do you imagine the Arcadians were a bit more guileless than latter-day folks? For my part, I think there’s precious little difference between the men and comicbooks.co