A Struggle for a Ring — page 335: what you’re looking at

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

“DO YOU LOVE ME?” ; 331 him. His heart was sorely troubled, his whole soul was distressed ; he was at a loss what todo. He loved Lady Ethel; and, as was natural, his love pleaded for her; he pitied his young wife, and pity pleaded for her. He was miserable with his doubts and feats. The plan which seemed most feasible to him was that he should get a divorce from his wife, a legal separation, and then marry Lady Ethel. Was such a separation possible? He did not know. He had, as a matter of course, no charge whatever to bring against his wife; far from. that, he had the greatest esteem for her. ‘The only possible grounds on which he could seek for a separation would be that he was married before he came of age, without the permission of his parents, and that the marriage was in every way unsuitable. Then he said to himself that the very sound of these reasons was absurd. Still he would see what was the legal view of the matter, He was perfectly ignorant of the law of marriage, only he imagined that in the existing state of the marriage laws it was easy to get a divorce, or to pro- cure a legal separation, if it were desired. He did not quite know if he wished it. He did not like the idea of ' causing Ailie any pain; he could not bear to think of it; nor, on the other hand, did he like to think that Lady Ethel should suffer. Of the two there was no doubt which he preferred—life with Lady Ethel would be one grand dream of delight; life with Ailie would—well, he had not thought of it. His marriage, that Quixotic act of folly, _was the one thing which of late years he had so earnestly tried to forget. It seemed to him that the first and the most just action would be to see if his idea were really correct—if Lady Ethel really loved him. Yet how could he find that out? Her proud reserve of the other evening (E(@) + Gomichoo KS