A Struggle for a Ring — page 165: what you’re looking at

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

THE MEETING. : 16% He did not notice it; he took out his watch and looked at it. | ‘‘T have but little time to stay, Ailie,” he said. ‘‘We- had better begin to think of business at once.” - “JT am ready,” she replied. He did not notice the pretty silk dress that had been made expressly to receive him, nor the red roses in the golden hair. ‘*T may be some years abroad,” he said, in a most mel- ancholy voice; ‘‘I have nothing to return home for; but, Ailie, I desire that you shall have every comfort and all that is needful while I am away.” ‘‘You are very good,” she res in a voice as dreary as his own. ‘‘Have you thought of any arrangement,” he asked, ‘‘which will add to your comfort while I am gone?” The tone was so indifferently kind, so business-like, so much like that which one stranger would use in speaking to another, that for a moment Ailie felt inclined to cry out against it—to cry out that she could not bear it; then her own common sense came to her aid. ‘‘T have said to myself that I will be patient; only patience can win,” she thought, and patient she was. ‘‘T have thought of a plan,” she said, ‘‘if you approve it. I have been thinking what I could do to remedy my deficiencies, and the best plan will be to go to school.” He looked up with a sudden gleam of amusement. ‘Go where?” he asked. ‘¢'To school,” she repeated. He looked more attentively at her. ‘“To school!” he said. ‘‘Why, what has made you think of such a thing? Why to school, Ailie?” ‘* Because I have so much yet to learn, and it would (E(0) Al G JOO KS (eo)