Stella Rosevelt — page 354: what you’re looking at

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

348 THE MOCK MARRIAGE. ments toward his lordship, for, as they stood for a few moments together beneath an arch of evergreen which had been erected at one end of the hall, her face was raised to his, as she listened to what he was saying, with a tender, almost rapt ex- pression, and her eyes were humid with the love which filied her heart for him. ) He thought that she had never appeared to so much ad- vantage as now. During all her stay at Cheshire House she had been more kind and gentle, more womanly than he had ever seen her before; and now he lingered by her side, real- izing how very beautiful she was, and feeling almost as if he had wronged her in the past by judging her so harshly, and his manner involuntarily became more gracious and friendly toward her. She saw it, and it made her heart bound with a wild hope, and she became so radiant, so fascinating and bewildering, that he wondered if he had indeed been nourishing an unjust preju- dice against her. Lady Sherbrooke saw them standing there, apparently ob- livious of everything and everybody else, and an anxious look shot into her face, for she had studied Miss Richards during her unguarded moments the past week, reading her character like an open book with her womanly intuition, and she knew that she would never make a good man happy; she would never yield that wifely self-sacrifice which was necessary to domestic enjoyment; and seeing how passing fair she was to-night, she dreaded her influence over her idolized son, notwithstanding what he had already told her. Suddenly one merry sprite appeared to be possessed ky a novel idea of some kind, and went flitting about the room, whispering, laughing, and making signs at the pair under the evergreen arch. The company, who were mostly young people, appeared to join in with her proposals, whatever they were, and at length GoOmiGcdooks (E(0)