A Struggle for a Ring — page 225: what you’re looking at

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

LADY ETHEL; 220 CHAPTER XXXII. LADY ETHEL. ‘‘Lady Ethel Pierpont!” How many times Alice said that name over and over again to herself—it had a charm for her that she could neither express nor understand ; the ' echo of it seemed in some mysterious manner to fall on her heart, to stir its depths—yet she had no association with the name. She gave her most eager attention to all that was said of Lady Ethel; from it she gathered that she was young, beautiful, a wealthy heiress, high born, dearly loved, graceful, accomplished; in fact every conceivable gift of Heaven was hers. Alice listened, not with envy, but in wonder; it seemed more than strange that one should have so much, others so little. She longed to ask Lady Gertrude about her, but that she dared not do. She had been at home some little time now, yet’ Alice knew her no better than on the first day she returned. . -Lady Gertrude was kind to her; when they were together she talked to her about the weather, the dogs, Lady Wal- drove’s health, any of her duties, but of herself never. If Alice made any inquiry as to her health, she answered it briefly ; of her likes and dislikes, of her friends and foes, of her own thoughts and ideas she never by any chance uttered a single word. She was kind to Alice; considerate for her even ; but between Lady Gertrude Carsdale, daugh- ter of the Earl of Waldrove, and Alice Derwent, the paid companion, there was the difference you understand of the whole world—a difference, in the opinion of Lady Gertrude, that nothing could ever bridge over. As her Eomicboo Ss.