Should She Have Left Him? — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

WIFED, NOT WEDDED, 23 “In our travels we reached a village near which was a ruin Mr. Hallock thought worthy a visit, and it was here my troubles began. On the evening of our arrival, Elsie and I sat upon a low balcony under the windows of the room of the inn occupied by our party as a sitting room, Mrs. Hallock was dozing within the room. Where Mr. Hallock and the son were, I don't know. The moon was shining ~ and the ruins were plainly visible, two miles away. suddenly, and without a word to suggest the caprice, Elsie, who was in one of her moods of reckless gayety, climbed over the balcony railing,and let herself drop to the back of a horse, one of two standing saddled beneath. As she rode away laughing, she challenged me to follow her. Moved by the same spirit of recklessness, I followed on the other horse. I did not come up with her until she had reached the ruins. Here she proposed that we should climb to a ledge or balcony projecting from the remains of a battlement, from which, she said, she had heard a fine view could be had. I fastened the horses to the frail staircase by which the ledge was reached. We had not been there long before the horses, frightened at something, began to rear and plunge. I hastened to quiet them, but before I could reach the stair- way the horses had pulled it down and, freeing themselves, had galloped away. ‘““We were caught asinatrap. The stairway was the only means of descent. At first Elsie thought it was great larks. But when repeated calls and shouts brought us no help, and it was plain that we Connicloo SS