The Price He Paid — page 175: what you’re looking at

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

166 HIS FIRST LOVE. The young girl made one last attempt to cling valiantly to the past. | “George—he loves me—trusts me. He will be so utterly miserable, if I forsake him!” “Do not speak his name!” cried Raven, his eyes sparkling with furious enmity. “Donotremind me that this man alone stands between meand my felicity. Ill might betide him through it. Woe to him if he should try to hold you to your hasty promise! Ishould free you by fair means or by foul. Whatis this Winterfeld to you? What can you be to him? He may love you after his own fashion, but he would drag you down to a common- place existence, and give you'a commonplace affec- tion, nothing more. If he loses you, he will over- come the pain of it; will seek consolation in his plans for advancement, in his work, in other ties. Such passionless natures do not know what despair is—nothing brings them out of their groove; they steadily and dutifully, keep on their way. I”—here the baron’s tone sank to a lower diapason; the look of hate died out of his face, and his stern voice grew milder and milder, until at length it melted to a great softness—“ 1 have never loved, have never known such hopes or bright illusions. Say that you will be mine, and I will encompass you with love, will make you my idol. Iwill accept any chal- lenge for your sake, and will come to you victorious from every struggle. All pain and sorrow shall be averted from your head; if really a storm is threat- ening, it shall not touch, shall not come nigh you; my arms are strong enough to protect the woman I love. You shall be the sunbeam to brighten my life, to brighten and to beautify it. I have striven hard and achieved much, but no ray of happiness has gleamed upon me; and now that I have seen it shining in my path, I cannot close my eyes and shut it out. abrielle be my wife, my joy, my one delight and treasure!” A boundless tenderness wasin his words. His stormy, fiery vehemence had melted gradually into tones of pathetic pleading, and he spoke in low tremulous accents, such as surely never yet had Gomicbooks Gom