A Struggle for a Ring — page 276: what you’re looking at

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

272 _ AILIE’S PROMISE. heart there is always burning, like clear flame, my love for you. All the world is blank, except the one spot where you are, and that is heaven !” He took her hand gently in his own, and held it there. ‘“You love me so dearly as that?” he said. ‘‘ Poor Ailie—poor child! What am I to say to your” And the night wind, whispering in the trees, seemed to re-echo his words. CHAPTER XL. AILIE S PROMISE. ‘‘What can I say to you, Ailie?” he repeated. ‘‘ Only this—learn to love me less, child; love me less.” ‘*T cannot,” she replied; ‘‘and even if I could, I would not. I would rather love you unhappily, as I do, without hope of return, than I would love another who should worship me. My love. tortures me, I love the pain; it stabs me, I kiss the wound; it binds me fast, I love the chains. I would not change my lot with that of the hap- piest woman living, because it 1s you I love—only you !” ‘“My pocr Ailie—poor child!” he said, gently; and she saw by the light of the moon that tears stood in his eyes. ‘‘Do not pity me,” she said; ‘‘I do not wish to make you sad. I read the other day a story that struck me as no other has ever done—the story of ‘ Patient Griselda ’ {am something like her. Nothing that you could do or say—no coldness, no unkindness, could change my love or alter it, lessen it or make it colder. I could bear all co — ' “ : » cComicbooks