A Struggle for a Ring — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

“WHAT SHALL WE DO2” 25 her but flowers. Alice loved flowers with passionate love. He filled her hands with roses and lilies, with cape jessa- mine and clove carnations. He showed her everything that was worth seeing at Fernbay. Then he turned to her with a smile: ‘* Alice, our happy day has almost ended; it is nearly _ seven—we must go to the station soon. You shall have some tea first.” She had some tea in a beautiful room overlooking the sea. ‘*T shall never forget this day,’’ she said to him. ‘‘I shall have to work hard all my life—very hard; I do not look forward to any pleasure or any happiness. This will be the one day of my life—it holds brightness enough to brighten all my life.” ‘‘T am very glad, Alice,” he said, with unaffected kind- ness. ‘‘In the years to come, if I can help you in any way—you must always remember that | am your friend—I shall be so pleased to assist you. We have been good friends—have we not, Alice?” The beautiful face dropped and flushed a little. Yes, they were good friends to-night ; King Cophetua, they say, was a friend of the beggar-girl. Oh! if she were but nearer to him—nearer in position and birth. Then Lord Carsdale laughed. ‘Only to think how famously we have cheated the doctor,” he said. ‘‘He must have thought himself very clever to imagine that he could keep a pretty girl like you from being seen. What would he say if he knew?” ‘‘He would kill me,” she said, calmly; ‘‘and do you know, Lord Carsdale, I think my father would kill me if . he knew, though I have done nothing wrong, you know, comicbooks::