Between Snow and Fire — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

>. ° Ls “—— 7 | i 4 7 "es. 'TWEEN SNOW AND FIRE. ie * blaze forth into bright flame. And his had been the tou which had enkindled it. “You have brought more than a Paradise into my life,” he replied, his glance holding hers as he looked up into her radiant eyes. “Tell me, did you never suspect, all these months, that I only /éved when in the halo-influence of your presence ?” | “*T knew it.” You knew it?” | “Of course I did,’ she answered with a joyous laugh, taking his face between her hands and kissing it again. “| should have been no woman if I had not. But, I have kept my secret better than you. Yes, my secret. I have been battling against your influence far harder than you have against mine, and you have conquered.” He started, and a look of something like dismay came into his face. “Tf that is so, you witching enchantress, why did you not lift me out of my torment long ago,” he said. “ But the worst is this, Just think what opportunities we have missed, what a long time we have wasted which might have been—Heaven.” | “Yet, even then, it may be better as things have turned out. My love—my star—I could die with happiness at this moment. But,” and then to the quiver of joy in her voice succeeded an intonation of sadness, ‘* but—I suppose this world does not contain a more wicked woman than my- self. Tell me, Eustace,” she went on, checking whatever remark he might have been about to make, “tell me what you think. Shail we not one day be called upon to suffer in tears and bitterness for this entrancingly happy flood of sunshine upon our lives now ?”’ “That is an odd question, and a thoroughly character- istic one,’ he replied slowly. ‘* Unfortunately all the events of life, as well as the laws of Nature, go to bear cut the opinions of the theolocians. Everything must be paid for, and from this rule there is no escape. Every- thing,therefore, resolves itself into a mere question of price— é.g., Isthe debt incurred worth the huge compound interest likely to be exacted upon it in the faror near future? Now apply this to the present case. Do you follow me?” “Perfectly. If our love is wrong—wicked—we shall be called upon to suffer for it sooner or later ?”’ ‘That is precisely my meaning. 1 will go further, The EGomichbooks (El) m