His Other Wife: A Novel — page 198: what you’re looking at

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

190 SERPENT AND DOVE. row back to the steamboat landing in time to embark | with the others,” said Vernois, as he lay half reclined in the stern of the little boat, with one hand on the rudder, , and the other holding the light shawl that she wore more closely about Faith’s shoulders. There was a keen smack of adventure in the incident . that pleased the Bohemian taste of the creole. ‘It was out of the commonplace to be lying there in _ the | roseate sunset glow, with his face upturned to the pure, lovely eyes of a beautiful young maiden, fair enough to have been the heroine of a Greek idyl. His heart throbbed faster at the idea of having the girl all to himself, with nothing to hinder the free expression - of that wizard tongue that had beguiled so many a gentle spirit from the ‘‘ways of peace and pleasantness” along the thorny paths of passion. | The indefinable charm and fascination of the man never appealed so strongly to Faith's innocent fancy as now, when she saw and felt it, encompassed and enhanced by the voluptuous beauty of the silent scene. Watching the soft flush of the brilliant evening play over his dark, seductive face, and hearing his low tones, accompanied by the rippling of the tides, she seemed to feel the inspiration that might have thrilled through Ari- adne’s breast when borne along the rose-wreathed Naxian_ shores, with the young Olympian at her feet. Far better than her own heart did Vernois interpret the changeful glow upon the girl's exquisite cheek, and the comicbooks “GO =|