A Struggle for a Ring — page 374: what you’re looking at

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

37° WATCHED. eg Fa aA She knew from the sound of voices that the gentlemen were, some of them, in the billiard-room, some in the smoking-room. How should she deliver that note? She had promised him her answer in twenty-four hours; his eyes had asked her for it plainly as any eyes could speak. | She must give it to him; it was useless for her to try to go to her room and sleep; she could not sleep again until she had kept her promise to him, and had given him the note. _ The part of the staircase and corridor where she stood was ’ allin darkness. She waited there some time. The great house was so dark and so silent, save for the distant sound of voices coming from the smoking-room. As she stood there, shrouded in darkness, she heard the quick sound of a horse’s gallop outside, followed by a loud peal at the hall door-bell ; she heard the hurried steps of the servants as they went to open it, then some hasty words in a stranger’s voice; she heard some one say: ‘‘Lord Carsdale is in the smoking-room.” It seemed to her that they had fetched him. There was an interval of silence, then the door closed again. She heard the sound of the horse’s quick gallop, the lights disappeared, and dim, dead silence followed. The party in the smoking-room broke up. She heard © the gentlemen go to their rooms; profound silence and profound darkness reigned around. ‘Then she saw Lord Carsdale at the other end of the corridor; he was passing along to his own room; he held a taper in his hand, and by its light she saw that he was pale and care-worn. She had not time even to utter his name, he passed along so quickly ; and, even had she time, she dared not raise her ' voice in that vast, silent house. ‘‘He is miserable because he has not my answer,” she said, and her gentle, generous heart ached for him. Gom G JOO Ss |