A Struggle for a Ring — page 237: what you’re looking at

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

COMING HOME. 233 Then Lady Manton came in, and the conversation changed. | Three days after this Lady Waldrove did not feel quite well; her head ached; the effort of entertaining so many guests had told upon her, and she felt inclined to remain in her room and rest. Alice was to read something ‘‘nice and sleepy” to her, and she was no little time in finding a book that answered that description. At length she dis- covered a fashionable novel, filled with faint sketches of very high society, with which the countess professed her- self to be quite charmed. ‘““Open the window, Miss Derwent,” she said, ‘‘and let me have all the perfume of the mignonette—I love mignonette. ” | Alice opened the window, so that the dainty, perfumed air just reached the luxurious lady; then she began her reading—page after page of the weakest matter ever printed. She was tired beyond fatigue when, to her intense relief, a sudden interruption came; the maid brought in a telegram for the countess. Lady Waldrove looked at it and shuddered. ‘‘My dear Miss Derwent,” she said, ‘‘do you. know that I positively Aa/e telegrams? They annoy me, they frighten me. I cannot open this. Will you read it for me?” Alice laid the novel on the table and opened the tel- egram. At the first sight of the soit her face turned whiter than death; then she read aloud: ‘¢ From Lord Carsdale—Dover—to Lady Waldrove— Roseneath Abbey: Have arrived safely in England. Shall be at home to-morrow. - Dearest love: to all.” ‘‘Tt is from my son,” cried the countess—**my son, and he will be home at last.” EOomMmicboo (ee)