His Other Wife: A Novel — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

LOST. 153 CHAPTER XV. LOST ! _ The brightest and balmiest of spring-tides blesses the Land of Flowers, and a gay party of excursionists have chartered a small schooner for a May-day celebration on the lovely banks of the St. John’s, about seven miles below the city. The ladies from Lucerne, under the escort of Mr, Croft and Julian Vernois, are among the patrons of the rural ere. The spot selected for the occasion is the picturesque site of an old fort, celebrated in history as the place of refuge for the early settlers of Florida from the predatory attacks of the Indian tribes then inhabiting the fairest portions of the peninsula. The ruins of its rocky foundations still surmount the eminence overlooking the river, and vines and creepers, rank as jungle plants, cover the crumbling mass of masonry. For miles inland a dense forest of live oaks and mag- nolias shelters herds of deer and smaller game. But on this day the shy denizens of the green wood have retreated to their hiding-places before the invading throng of pleas- ure-seekers; and the patchés of soft, rich turf, canopied over with festoons of vines, and inlaid with fallen petals EComicbooks: (E(@) 3