Beadle's Dime Novels No. 20: Florida; or, The Iron Will — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

118 FLORIDA; OR, THE IRON WILL “Don’t say that,” he responded, with a pleading look. “1 can not be dependent. ‘Will you tell Virginia that oS gale is half written ?” “Tf you wish it,” said Florida. “ Please do so, then; it will give her pleasure, I am sure.” “I must go now, Parker; it is later then I thought. Good- morning.” He held her hand murmuring his thanks for her kindness. Then he carried it to his lips. Florida’s Leart beat with a strange mingling of love and pain. Her voice choked as she said good-by again. “What a mean fellow I have been to call her an ogress !” whispered Parker. “I wish she were my sister, I would ask her to sit by me from morning till night. To a true sister it would be no sacrifice.” Florida drove rapidly home. On her next visit to Parker, she found him quite pale and dejected. He was sitting up, however, end her presence seemed to give him instant strength. “Do you know what worries me and takes away the vitality I need ?” he asked. She shook her head. “The constant desire to get well, and find out who are these friends so careful of me; and the disappointment that is more than I can tell, of not receiving letters from Virginia.” “Was Virginia, then, so dear a friend? and can not I take her place ?” He started, violently, and crimsoned; his breath grew short even to gasping, but after a few moments he controlled himself. “You do not know,” he said, calmly, though his previous emotion just tinges his voice, “ you do not know what Virginia was to me.” “ And could it be possible that she professed—” she had touched delicate ground, and, like a woman, shrunk back from - “he subject. “ Fjiorida—Virginia, I had hoped, loved me very much,” he said, mournfully. “Then she is changed, Parker—she permits the visits of a lover” - comic ooolks.conn