Beadle's Dime Novels No. 20: Florida; or, The Iron Will — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

p4 FLORIDA; OR, THE IRON WILL. She smiled on him, however, and he felt, diffident though a sincere affection might make him appear, that he was not unattractive to her. He had told himself that to-night he woul:l propose; but when near her, something in her manner forbade him to approach the subject, although she treated him with marked consideration. Virginia had lost her interest in the scene. She still addressed others and listened with apparent pleasure when they spoke; but her brain and her heart felt a longing for rest, that had, of late, become almost painfvl. Suddenly she was aware of an unusual stir. A thrill ran through her frame, for which she could not account, till, rais- ing her eyes, she found herself in the presence of Parker. His appearance and entrance seemed to have made something of a sensation. “Tell me, wip is that beautiful creature ?” exclaimed one lady, gazing at him with her soul in her eyes. “If that is ~ amet poet divine, then forever after let my penetration be at +.” Virginia was too little schooled in the ways of the fashion- able world to keep her delight and her surprise to herself “ O, Parker !” she sajd, her eyes overbrimming with delight, “ you here ?” “T would not have come, for the world, in an assembly like this,” he answered, in alow voice, casting a glance along his threadbare but well-kept clothes, “ but your servant, thinking I was one of the late guests, I suppose, ushered me right in.” “You look as well as any of them,” whispered Virginia. “ Better,” her heart said, as she glanced in his face and marked the handsome features, the bold, bright forehead. “O! I'm so glad to see you! but—” at that moment she caught Flo- rida’s eye. It was fastened with a curious expression upon Parker. Was it hate ?—or—a thrill of new terror ran through Virginia’s veins—was it love ? Something unusual was revealed to her in that glance. As I said, Florida had stood for @ moment, her eyes trans- fixed as the youth met her gaze. For a moment her cool, itual indifference was gone, and, had an interested person beer looking on, traces of a struggle, almost deadly, might have heen seen in that beautiful face. comiclooolks.conn > .