A Struggle for a Ring — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

24 “WHAT SHALL WE DO?” be overcome. Still the girl’s heart beat high with excite- ment; it was a terrible, almost an awful thing to do, yet she liked the excitement, and enjoyed the danger, as the young and thoughtless always do. It was such a day—so unutterably, so entirely, so sur- passingly happy, that she could never forget it—so bright, so sunshiny. Lord Carsdale met her at the station with a carriage. In all her life before she had never been in a carriage. There was no single thing that could add to her happiness forgotten by him. He took her to a first- class hotel, and gave her a dinner such as she never dreamed of; then they went down to the lovely, smiling, happy sea. He did not make love to her; he was not exactly in love with her. He admired her greatly; he had a kindly, compassionate, brotherly liking for her—not a passionate love. She was a beautiful, unhappy child, with heart and soul full of longing —a beautiful, graceful girl whom fortune and fate had flung in his way; and he had stepped aside, as it were, to give her a little happiness. Of harm or wrong he had no thought; the dancing- masters daughter was sacred to him as though she were a princess. He had a reverence for all women. He would never have dreamed even ever so faintly of behaving differ- ently to her; because she was young, beautiful, alone, be- neath him in position, seemed to him all reasons why he should treat her with greater respect. He had not for one moment thought of harm when he offered her this one day of happiness. True, he would not have offered it toa daughter of the Duchess of Helyton; but then every rank has its customs. . In the class to which Alice belonged, a. day's holiday of that kind was not entirely wrong. He showed his appreciation of her purity and singleness of heart in this fashion; he never offered to buy anything for comicbooks.