Vashti's Fate — page 265: what you’re looking at

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

‘va9 . - . 260 TANTALIZATI ON. but you will find when it comes to the “—here he was in- terrupted again by a fit of coughing. ‘‘I say, Vashti, I wonder where I got such a cough ?” ‘You've coughed all winter. I shouldn’t wonder, Frank, if that cough took you out of the world.” ‘“Nonsense,” he said, turning pale. ‘‘ Vashti, I don’t want to die. I'm not fit to die; and, I’m afraid, I never shall be.” A coughing spell followed, more violent and prolonged than before. Vashti sat with an assumption of nonchalance; but, through it all, the gloom that brooded in her heart shone darkly. Frank got up to leave the room, coughing as he went. “Vou are not going out to-night?” Vashti said, inquiringly. aoe “Yes, IT am; I’m going to get warm first, though. Your room is colder than Greenland.” © He shivered as he spoke. “You'd better stay in with that cough; it’s a perfect hurricane outdoors.” “I'm going if it kills me; and I shouldn't wonder if it did. I couldn't endure being alone to-night.” He went out, and presently Vashti rang to know if the carriage was ready for her, and departed for the evening gayety. She embraced the first opportunity, after entering the brilliant and crowded room, to summon~Professor ‘Thorpe to her side, and bewildered him with the enchanting gen-. tleness of her demeanor. Never had she looked more beautiful; never had her loveliness taken a more weird form than to-night. All the evening she entranced him with word, look, and smile—