A Struggle for a Ring — page 132: what you’re looking at

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

128 “GIVE ME LOVE, OR HATE.” he met the countess, who looked highly pleased and de- lighted. ‘¢Our visitors are all here, Vivian,’ you seen Lady Pierpont yet?” ‘*No; nor her daughter,” he replied. ‘*True; I am forgetting; Lady Pierpont seemed tired with her journey, and went at once to her room. Lady Ethel went with her. I will introduce you in the drawing- room before dinner; there is the second bell—-I am late.” Lord Carsdale was almost first in the drawing-room ; he saw many visitors and had to greet many old friends, but the one face he longed to see had not appeared. Suddenly the drawing-room opened, and by the sudden stillness that came over the groups scattered in that vast saloon he knew that she had entered. It must have been a sense of foreboding that alarmed him. She was there, and yet, much as he had longed to see her, he turned away and crossed the room to greet an old friend whom he saw there. ‘‘What a coward Iam,” he said. ‘‘I despise myself.” So he did, yet he did not find the courage to look at her. He felt, rather than knew, that his mother was seeking him ; he purposely evaded her; then wondered at himself and what he was doing—wondered at his own weakness. ‘‘Vivian,’ he heard Lady Waldrove say, ‘‘I am _pur- suing you like a will-o’-the wisp; one moment you are here, the next you are gone. I want you—lI want to intro- duce you to Lady Ethel Pierpont. My dear boy, how very pale you look; are you ill?” His pale face frightened her. He laughed carelessly, ‘Til, mother? No. Whata strange idea. Iam _ per- fectly well.” ‘‘You look pale and strange,” said the countess. I she said. ‘‘ Have comicbooks (E(0)