A Struggle for a Ring — page 306: what you’re looking at

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

302 A YOUNG LADY'S HINT. the girl rather slow of understanding—‘‘ not accustomed to taking hints’”—and Ailie looked up at her husband to see if she had annoyed him. She met his glance fully; his eyes seemed to be looking through hers; and then she read annoyance and displeasure, irritation and vexation— anything and everything except love. That stern, cold glance pierced her heart; she could not bear it! She rose from her seat and left them alone; she would rather have died than have encountered such another glance. How she lived through the hours of that day she did not know; her heart was heavy as lead; the sunshine and the brightness of everything around distracted her; she wept until it seemed to her that the very fountain of her tears were dry. She must see him, she must speak to him, whether he were displeased or not; she could not bearit. It seemed to her that long weeks had passed since that one interview, in which he had not been altogether unkind to her, She must speak to him, hear him utter her name, even should it be in accents of anger. But where and how should she manage it? She heard him tell the countess that he should not be home probably for dinner, as he was riding over to Ashdale Lodge, and should most likely return home about nine. She at once resolved to wait for him by the gate that led to the high-road, which he must pass on his return. No matter what happened afterward, whether the countess were angry or not, she must see him or she must die ; she could bear this silence and distance no longer. Better that he should speak in anger than never speak at all; better that he should kill her than leave her to die by this most slow and cruel torture. It seemed to the unhappy young wife that fate itself had intervened to help her; for the countess shut herself up in ~ comicboo