A Struggle for a Ring — page 373: what you’re looking at

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

WATCHED. 369 CHAPTER LV. WATCHED. Ailie could almost have cried aloud, it seemed so unfor- tunate, so hard to bear—that to-night, of all nights, she should not have one minute to call her own—everything was against her. Lady Waldrove held quite a levee in her room. Lady Ethel had fancied that she seemed out of spirits, and had come to see why it was. Lady Gertrude thought that she was not quite well. Lady Legard had fancied she looked tired. One after another they came in, staid some little time, and went away again, while Ailie sat silent, longing to be away, if only for three minutes, yet unable to leave. Lady Waldrove turned to her at last with a sigh of relief, ‘They are all gone, Miss Degas visitors generally come when one cares least for them. Now, have you the third volume? The worst of saying good-night to so many people is that it makes one feel so wide awake.” ‘‘A nice prospect for me,” thought Ailie. She began to read; the clock struck eleven, then twelve, before the countess dismissed her; she would, in all prob- ability, have kept her there much longer but that Ailie came to the end of the volume; then she looked so tired, and her voice had grown so weak, that Lady Waldrove told her she might go. At last she was free, but it was after midnight. She still had the little note concealed in her dress. Where was her husband, and how was she to give it to him? She stood for a few minutes on the stairs, late as it was. . (E(0) Al (C ooo) “Sz