The Price He Paid — page 124: what you’re looking at

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

THE BARON’S DECREE. 115 “And what do you expect me to think of it” asked Raven, ironically. “It seems to me you have every reason to be grateful to me for adopting this view of the case, as it alone admits of a lenient judgment. If I knew that you and Gabrielle were seriously contemplating the possibility of a union——” He paused, but the look which completed the sen- tence was significant enough, and fraught with evil presage. “Would your excellency have preferred that we should be attached without contemplating a lifelong union?” asked George, quietly. “Mr. Winterfeld, you forget yourself,” thundered the baron. “The blame of this secret understand- ing lies not with my niece, but with vou. That young girl was not in a position to measure its im- portance, or to rightly estimate the situation. You were fully able todo both, and were aware of the barriers which stood between you; it is with you, therefore, I must now reckon. Youare one of my youngest clerks, without name or rank, without ‘fortune or prospects. By what right do you venture to aspire to the hand of the young Baroness von Har- der, who is accustomed to all the luxuries of life, and who has aclaim to move in circles widely remote from yours?” “By the same right as that whereon Baron von Raven relied, when, under circumstances .in all respects similar, he sued for the hand of the minister’s daughter, who subsequently became his wife—by right of my confidence in the future.” Raven bit his lip. “It appears to be with you a foregone con- clusion that in point of success your career will resemble mine. It is rather venturesome on your part to place yourself thus boldly on a par with me. Besides, the comparison does not hold good. I wasone of the minister’s most in- timate friends long before I became his son-in-law. I knew that he favored my suit, and had assured mvself of his consent before I addressed his daugh- ter. That is the only honorable course to pursue in Eomichboo CS (E(0)