A Struggle for a Ring — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

DECIDING HER FATE. 5 35 standing round like grim sentinels, the shadow of night infolding all around, the pale light of the stars falling on the darkened house—the two figures, the handsome young lordling and the beautiful, pale, terrified girl. Suddenly he bent down and took her hands in his. He little knew or guessed the keen rapture that seemed almost to stop her heart from beating—her white, downcast face betrayed none of it. ‘*Do you trust me, Alice?” he asked. It was new to him, this wooing of women; he had never essayed it before, and a new sense of his own dignity and importance as a man came over him. ‘‘Ves,” she replied, ‘‘certainly Ido. I trust you as I trust Heaven.” ‘‘That is quite right. You know if I wished to deceive you it would be very easy todoso. I should profess the most violent love for you, and pretend that I could not live without you—all the kind of high-flown romance that . lovers in books talk; but I say none of those things—I make no vows, no protestations. I could live without you, and though I like you very much indeed, I do not pretend to have any passionate raptures of love. Iam an Englishman, straightforward, and one who speaks to the point. I have carelessly placed you in such a position that there is only one way out of it. I cannot leave you exposed to angry words and ill-usage—to be homeless, penniless. Great Heaven! I should be a monster if I thought of such a thing. I offer you the only repara- tion in my power—marriage. Will you accept it, Alice? Think fcr a few minutes before you answer me; all your future and mine depend on the word you speak.” Bee As he bent over her, waiting her reply, the clock tolled out the hour of twelve—midnight; and Alice heard it ° ~ a. - ’ * ae oa * "4 a2 ft PE se - Eomicboo nN. 4 °< 2 Br. - " gy : |