Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 171: what you’re looking at

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

162 MADLY IN LOVE. one so young and beautiful as you are as sedate as a woman of seventy. You do not appear to enjoy anything or to have any of the inclinations so natural to youth.’’ ‘‘Pray do not say any more,’’ she said; ‘‘you do not com- prehend——”’ ‘‘But [ should like to, Miss Cameron. Tell me, will you not, what has made you so serious?”’ he persisted. She bit her lip with evident annoyance and regarded the pebbles at her feet. : ‘“‘T should be sorry to think,’’ she answered, slowly, ‘‘that I seem like a person who has outlived all the agree- able sensations in this world, for such is far from being the case.”’ ‘On the contrary, you seem like one who has never tasted them, and who, moreover, never cares to. You are so reserved. Don’t think me impertinent, but tell me, have you ever entertained the thought of marrying?”’ He riveted upon her a look at once so penetrating and confident that it caused her to blush scarlet. He saw that he had confused her painfully, and yet he did not regret his question. At first she sat motionless as though uncer- tain whether to resent his assurance or not, then she said: ‘‘T suppose almost every one has at one time or another. ’’ Here was an admission which was far from being just what he had anticipated. So she hada past, and he was right in his conjecture. He realized perfectly that the conversation was distasteful to her, and had her reply been different he might have de- sisted then and there, but another feeling, one which he hardly dared to analyze, had awakened in his breast and urged him still further. ‘‘But I dare say you, like many others, don’t believe in Gomichbooks-com