A Struggle for a Ring — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

52 A SHOCKED HUSBAND. be in the stately, splendid saloons of Roseneath Abbey. Alice was filled with awe; she seemed to be walking on velvet and flowers. If she touched a bell, low-voiced, noiseless servants vied with each other in answering it and attending to her. She ate the daintiest food from services of costly plate and rare china—tasted rare wines in glasses that were marvels of beauty in themselves—it was like new life to her. She could neither realize nor understand it— the dancing-master’s daughter was in a new sphere. At first she was very uncomfortable imit. She was inclined to call solemn-looking waiters ‘‘sir,” to rise when he - addressed her, to be unnecessarily profuse in her thanks for any little service rendered. At first all this amused her - young husband—it was quite new to him, and he enjoyed it; the time had to come when it would irritate and annoy him. The first evening they spent together there, at the Hotel du Roi, was one she never forgot. Lord Carsdale had turned to her suddenly. ‘‘T do not like your name, Alice,” he said; ‘‘I do not like the name of Alice.” ‘‘T wish that I could change it, then,” she said, ‘‘as I have done the name of Derwent. But why don’t you like it, Vivian?” . _ He kissed her carelessly, not with the impassioned love and tenderness of a young husband. ‘“You must not be hurt if I correct your little eccen- tricities of speech either, little wife. I prefer hearing you say, ‘Why do you not like it?’ to ‘Why don’/ you?’ Don’t is a most inelegant word, tomy mind. You ask me why I do not like the name of Alice. Let methink. Itisa favorite name in fiction; Bulwer Lytton had a most charming Alice; Thackaray has no Alice. I think it (e(0)