His Other Wife: A Novel — page 287: what you’re looking at

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

A VULTURE ON GUARD. * 279 the glowing end of his cigar from his sinewy brown fingers, and, rising, stood before the girl like a towering impersonation of some lawless Viking of the ancient time, the strength of whose hand constituted the extent of its claim to any prey that it closed on. A slight shiver, as of some mysterious awe, swept through Faith’s delicate limbs. Bending a little toward her, and resting one of his mighty hands on the table, the captain said, in a voice that shook a little: ‘‘It has been said, in song or story, that women like you are the angels whom God sends in human shape upon the earth to redeem lost souls—such as mine.” Faith shuddered and closed her eyes, as if some vision full of terror had been presented to her sight. He went on, after a brief pause: ‘tT have shown you what my past has been. At this moment I feel myself poised between two destinies, and it remains with you to decide which of them I shall follow. With your heaven-like smile to light me, I feel I may yet retrieve my way, and become an honest, useful man. Let but that hope shine on me, and | will kneel before you as a sinner to his guardian saint, and so reverence you until we can stand together before the holy altar for the mar- riage blessing. © He paused again; the low and solemn earnestness of his tone being hushed, left the silence of the waning night more oppressive that ever. His eyes gleamed on the girl Comichoo iGO