The Price He Paid — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

A DARK SPOT. 19 “To me?” <A flush mounted to the young man’s brow. “I am ready to cope with every difficulty, if you will stand steadily by me. But you mistake if you reckon on your mother’s customary compli- ance in this instance, when all her prejudices will be aroused, all her family traditions evoked in opposi- tion. And even if you should succeed in winning her over, nothing will change your guardian’s views. I know him.- He will never give his con- sent.” Gabrielle leaned her fair head against the tree’s mighty trunk, and plucked carelessly at some blades of grass. “T do not care for his consent,” she said. “I shall not allow him to dictate to me one way or the other. Let him try to coerce me!” — “No one will attempt to coerce you, but they will separate us,” replied George. “'The very moment our love is discovered, our separation will be de- creed. I know it, and it is this knowledge alone which imposes silence on me. You little guess how the secrecy, which has such a charm for you, the » continued anxious concealment, distresses and humiliates me; how contrary it is to my whole nature. Now for the first time I feel all the hard- ship of being poor and unknown. . What does it matter if you are poor?” asked Gabrielle, carelessly. “I shall be rich one day. Mamma is always telling me that Iam to be Uncle Raven’s sole heiress.” George was silent, setting his lips tightly as though to keep down some bitter feeling. Be “Yes, you will be rich,” he said at last; “you will be only too rich.” “I really believe you mean it as a reproach,” pouted the young lady, with a highly ungracious look. | “No; but it opens out one more gap between us. If you were in the same position of life as myself, lL might come to you fearlessly, and ask, not for your hand at once, perhaps, but for your plighted faith, until such time as I could offer you a home of your own. As itis, what would Baron von Raven say, | Eomichbooks. co