The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 131: what you’re looking at

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

124 Penelope. stood for a moment where he had left her and then walked across the room and looked at her image in the long mirror. ‘“Penelope’s web!” she said, softly: “I wonder if she kept her beauty all those twenty years of waiting! Five years are not so long, and yet—and yet—I wonder iif my web will ever be done. Am I giving up my life to a fancy? How aunt would cut me if she knew! Five years for a fancy.”’ ‘Then, as she turned to leave the room, “If five years, then it will be a life.” That night Judge Mammon gave a ball. Helen had just been dancing with one of her twenty suitors, and at her request had been led back to her aunt’s chair. Mr. Alison was just presenting a friend to his sister, and then, turning suddenly, John Warrington looked into the face he had been dreaming of for years. “Mr. Warrington and I hardly need an introduction,” said Helen gracefuly, extending her hand as she spoke. Again Mr. Alison was nonplussed, and his faint suspicion vanished. How was he to know that every nerve in the eirl’s body was tingling, and that it required all the ef- fort she could exert, in spite of her years of training in coldness, to make the greeting calmly. Could it be that five long years had passed since she had gazed into those earnest eyes, or heard the quiet voice saying, precisely as so often long ago, “Are you happy to-night, Miss Winters?” | Why had he chosen these words for his greeting? she found herself asking over and over. And as she stood silent for a moment, GOomicbook (Eo)