A Struggle for a Ring — page 316: what you’re looking at

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

ty ad DRESSING A RIVAL. ‘We must go home, Ailie; it is growing late. I can- not leave you to walk through the park alone; I will go with you.” ‘¢ But your horse,” she said. ‘‘ Will you not be afraid to leave Black Charlie?” ‘“No. I would rather leave my horse than leave you, Ailie,” he replied, laughingly, ‘‘ Why, how you tremble, poor child; how you suffer! Now, draw your cloak round you—see, it is quite damp with dew! How much you have wished for this one interview with me; it seems to be our fate to see each other by starlight.” He saw that her hands trembled so she could not fasten the clasp of her cloak. He did it for her. ‘‘Now, Ailie, let us hasten home,” he said. ‘‘ Take my arm, for the ground is very” unequal, and you may stumble.” But Ailie caught his hand and clung to that; he would not hurt her mind by withdrawing it, so they walked through the sweet, dewy moonlight home. He could not utter a word of warning when he stopped to bid her good- night. She had almost forgotten her sorrow and despair, her unhappy love, in the delight of that moonlight walk with him; and when they stopped before the little side- door, the face so raised to his wore such an expression of passionate happiness, he could not find it in his heart to shadow it again. ‘‘Good-night, Ailie,” he said, kindly. ‘‘Take this cloak off at once; itis quite damp. Good-night!” Still, with the same look cf breathless, rapturous hap- piness on her sweet face, she looked up at him with the guileless innocence of a child. “You did not bid me good-by before you went to __ India,” she said; ‘‘you would have kissed me then, be- Comic 900 SS (eo)