Witch Hazel; or, The Secret of the Locket — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

ee Po ee a | kg ee Oe een Mrs, Graham replied to him in the same friendly spirit, telling him of herchange of residence, but never a word of the dire necessity that had caused it. She simply remarked that they thought the change would be advantageous since their old home had been destroyed; and so Adrien Earlescourt never dreamed how the woman, whom he so fondly loved, was toiling for her daily bread. It was toil, too, for there was much that was per- plexing and annoying, and even disgusting at times, in being at the mercy of the capricious and exacting lovers of fashion who thronged her rooms and de- manded her time and attention, Mr. Earlescourt believed that she was still living in affluence, and his letters showed this, while he warily commended her tenderness and nobility in adopting as her vwn the little waif whom they had saved on that never-to-be-forgotten night when they, too, had so narrow an escape. He often remarked that he should always feel deeply interested in little Miss May Graham. Two years passed and this friendly correspondence continued, and Mr, Earlescourt did not once speak of pe love that he still cherished until the end of that me. Then he wrote a manly, earnest declaration of his affection, telling Emilie that he had loved her from the hour of their first meeting in London, and had ouly waited until then to formally ask her hand out of respect for her bereavement. Could she love him well enough to come to his heart and home, and brighten all his future life? he asked. Without her he must continue to live in loneliness, and with a ceaseless regret; with her life would be one long season of joy and hope. | Emelie Graham grew very sorrowful as she read this tenderly entreating letter. . Of late she had been learning again the lesson of love. She realized that to spend her life with such a man as Adrien Earlescourt would be a blessed rest— a delightful release from toil and care—and that she would be carefully sheltered and protected from all future struggle with the world by the deep and last- ing affection of a king among men. But her pride suddenly interposed a seemingly im- passable barrier. When Mr. Earlescourt had learned to love her she had been the admired and wealthy