His Other Wife: A Novel — page 212: what you’re looking at

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

204: THE MADCAP TAKES A PRIZE. It would have touched the heart of a devil to look upon: her, having heard all the deep humiliation that rose from — her heart in that helpless cry. . Vernois was only a human devil, and his manhood did ache in sympathy with the meek pain of the innocent creature who owed this bitter hour to his cruel selfishness. But his sympathy with her suffering seemed only as fresh fuel to his passion for the beautiful, flower-like woman who was so utterly at his mercy. There leaped to his heart an irresistible desire:to raise the sweet, bowed head and clasp it to his breast. He had called her his wife, and he wildly longed to make her his own forever—not more with the craving of passion than with all that was left in him of a nobler sentiment. He bent above her now, touching her bright hair with a soft pressure of his warm palm, and murmured low: ‘‘And why not let it be so, dearest? Why not be my Faith—my hope, my love, and my life?” _ | She quickly lifted her head, shaking from it his caress- ing hand, and, rising to her feet, while her face and form assumed the indescribable dignity that is the crowning grace of a true woman, she said, jn a clear, firm voice: ‘‘Mr. Vernois, is this a time or place for you to speak such words to a lone girl, unprotected save by your own chivalry, unguided save by her instincts, and oppressed as. I am by a thousand pangs that you cannot, or, at least, do not understand?” ? ‘‘ But, Faith, darling, I love you so, and so yearn to be: your comfort and support in all this bitter trial! Forgive. Eomicbooks: 3 (E(@)