The Price He Paid — page 77: what you’re looking at

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

68 | FORTUNE AND MARRIAGE, doom of destruction was averted now. The beseech- ing prayer of those brown eves, and the glittering tears which stood in them, had saved the well. Perhaps at this moment the cold, stern man, who had long passed the prime of life, may have felt that his boast had been premature that not even he in his strength was entirely proof against “the nixies’ charm.” ———— ee CHAPTER V. FORTUNE AND MARRIAGE. George Winterfeld sat at his writing-table in his own room. He looked worn, and almost ill. The transient freshness of tint called up by his holiday excursion had long since vanished, and the natural pallor, which had even then been noticeable on the young man’s finely cut and intellectual features, had visibly increased. George often worked at the expense of his health; he was urged on by a nobler spur than ambition. Hvery step he took forward lessened the gap be- tween himself and the woman he loved, and, though possessed of all becoming modesty, he was yet too sensible of his own abilities and his own worth not to cherish an assured-hope that one day that gap would be filled up. His colleagues, who for the most part contented themselves with getting through the business which fell to them in office-hours, knew nothing of the assessor’s quiet, unceasing toil. He never alluded to it. The chief’s penetrating eye alone had dis- covered with what a fund of perseverance, with what genuine talent the young clerk was gifted, though as yet he had had but small opportunity of turning his gifts to active account. George always worked best in the morning hours. He was sitting to-day bent over a volume of juris- Rak a ed and so immersed in its arid contents that e did not notice the opening of the outer door which gave access to his apartments. It was only when Gomicvbooks (E(0)