A Struggle for a Ring — page 384: what you’re looking at

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

380 A STARTLING ACCUSATION. ‘‘You know what you have done,” said the earl’s daugnter, angrily. ‘‘T do not,” replied Ailie, calmly. ‘‘You are quite shameless,” she cried, ‘‘for one so young; quite shameless. I do not convict you on any testimony except my own. I believe that which my own eyes have seen, and my own ears have heard—nothing else. I take no one’s word.” ‘If you will but tell me,” said Ailie. ‘‘T blush to repeat it,” said Lady Gertrude. ‘‘ You force the words from me. If you had any good taste, any sense of right, any sense of honor left, you would not ask me to utter words from which my whole soul revolts.” And Ailie, looking at the haughty face, saw that she was speaking the truth. ‘‘T would save you the disgrace, Lady Gertrude, if I could,” she said. ‘‘I would tell my crime to you, instead of you to me, if I knew it.” ‘You are hardened,” said Lady Gertrude. ‘‘So hard- ened that if ever I had felt the least pity for you, I feel none now. I will tell you your crime. I saw you with my own eyes come from my brothers room after midnight last night. 1 saw you, and heard you speak. Do you deny that?’ Slowly enough she uttered the words, and each word had gone like the pain of a sharp sword through Ailie’s heart. Her face had grown white as the face of a dead woman; her white lips trembling. She tried to speak, but no sound came from them; her voice died away on them. Good Heaven! that so terrible a thing had happened. What could she say? ‘Do you deny it?” asked Lady Gertrude, and it was pitiful to see how the white lips opened without a sound. i Eomicbhoo Ss (eC) m