Beadle's Dime Novels No. 20: Florida; or, The Iron Will — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

; 8 FLORIDA; OR, THE, IRON WILL Her brow, fair and white, was partly hidden by a wide yrimmed chip hat, from whose crown ribbons of a pale blue fluttered. Her dress was white—its material of a coarse texture, but so perfectly did it shape \itself to the delicate outlines of the rounded figure, a queen could not have wished for drapery more statuesque in its foldings, more delicate in its apparent fineness. Turning with a half-sigh from the glorious landscape, worthy the pencil of a Claude, the childlike, gentle Virginia Owen tripped along the stony path until the pine-leaves slipped under her feet, and the fragrance of the trees imparted a delightful odor to the atmosphere. Here, in the entrance of the grove,she looked anxiously around through the narrow avenues made by the tall, straight trunks of the trees, clapping her hands impatiently. . witid “T am here, Virginia;” said a musical voice. He was een or nineteen years of age. His cheeks were dashed fatally with a blazing red; his tawny colored hair hufig in light curls around a brow of splendid proportions. His eyes seemed shining as with moist electric sparks—his lips were brighter, more crimson than his cheeks. He was dressed in a well-kept suit of black broadcloth, but for all his care the seams were dust-white. His hands (he carried a book in one of them) had a bloodless transparency, and appeared almost as lumin- ous as a butterfly’s wings. , “Haye you had a pleasant day®” she asked aloud, smiling “O! no; just the contrary—for you were absent. You know I looked for you—my eyes were among the trees oftener than on my classes till the clock struck ten; then I knew there was no hope. Why did you stay away?” “Because Florida said I must. She was in one of her worst moods to-day.” “ And she made you work horribly, I know. Your poor littie hands! how red they look! Upon my word! why Vir- ginia—they are wounded !” “That is nothing "—said the girl, striving to pull away the _ bruised fingers—“it is only the washing ; I shall get used to Conmicloooks.comnn yo