His Other Wife: A Novel — page 288: what you’re looking at

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

280 A VULTURE ON GUARD. like orbs of burning jet. The grandeur of passion in- vested him with something of dark sublimity. Faith had let her white, seared face droop under the blaze of his searing eyes, and she faltered out: ‘‘Oh, sir, it never can be that your life and mine shall not be set apart as far as they are now! To bless and benefit a man, a woman must first love and respect him.” ‘“You mean, then, that for you to love and respect me is impossible?” Under the calm question throbbed a pulse of rising anger that she could not help but feel, but she answered, firmly : “T could and would respect you profoundly, if, by the force of your own manhood, you forsake your evil life and fulfill your higher destiny; for, I believe, the sinner who repents and reforms is a nobler being than one who never erred. But to /ove you—that is different, and utterly zm- possible!” : ‘You do not know that. A great love may kindle its own response. ” | ‘* You deceive yourself. I pray you say no more.” ‘‘Do you think I will be silent now, when for the first time in all my wild life I have within my grasp a happi- ness almost divine? Nay—loving me or hating me, Faith Hilary, you shall be my bride, and no other man’s!” The desperate resolve of a conscienceless being vitalized every accent, and, ignorant of all fierce natures as she was, - Faith felt that her fate trembled on this man’s will. (E(e) 3 Eomicbooks: