The Opposite House: A Novel — page 253: what you’re looking at

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

248 Lhe Opposite louse. have cherished your pure, sacred love for me, which I had believed forfeited and hoped to regain in death?” he whispered with passionate fervor. “I had imagined a different meeting—not here in this noisy, glittering ball-room, surrounded by thousands of curious eyes and ears. My first visit was to be to you and your mother, Marie, from whom I desired to ask my greatest earthly happiness!” Her only answer was a look. The dance separated her a moment from her lover, and she moved smil- ing, with bent head, as if in a dream, in the line of brilliantly dressed ladies. Figure followed figure; acquaintances addressed Marie in jesting words; Gerrald often shook a comrade’s proffered hand as they passed in the dance. It was impossible to talk and express the emotions of their overflowing hearts, as they mutely moved in the glittering train, which seemed to float on the jubilant melody of the National Hymn. At last the graceful tangle separated, the music melted into the notes of a waltz and, like a cloud of butter- flies, the couples hovered over the smooth floor. Traugott led his partner back to her mother, who inquired about his long illness and his present state of health, the horrors of the war, and the period of suffering in the hospital; and when Marie was claimed by another partner, the handsome officer took the seat she had vacated beside the old ComicboOoks.c©