Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 219: what you’re looking at

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

210 “YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU.” CHAPTER XXV. ‘YoU KNOW I LOVE YOU.”’ ‘Tt would not have been difficult, you know; only a few drops more than prescribed by the doctor, and Florence would have been avenged. How my heart beat when I real- ized this! A perfect frenzy seemed to possess me and con- trol my actions. ‘There he lay, powerless and alone, entire- ly atmy mercy. I gloated over him like a very devil, my pulses throbbing, my body shaking and burning by turns. ‘‘He called for water; now was my chance. Seizing the deadly draught I moved toward him, when all at once— how shall I describe it? His very helplessness cried aloud to me; my fingers refused to perform their mission and— he was saved !”’ Dick approached and took her hand in both his own. He was strongly agitated, and she felt, rather than saw, that he was regarding her fixedly. She would have risen, but he detained her. | “It was your nobility of character alone which prevented you from committing a crime. God be thanked that it is so,’’ he murmured. ‘‘What a lot yours has been! At least, your fortitude has been marvelous. My poor, misguided child, why have you such a self-reliant nature? Such na- tures may be the strongest, but yours has been your curse. Into what stony paths it has led you! Why did you not confide a part of your troubles, if not all, to some one?”’ ‘To whom, pray,’’ she returned, coldly, ‘‘would I have gone? You forget how utterly alone in the world we two were, and from childhood I lacked the faculty of making friends. ’”’ Gomichbookssco