In Sight of St. Paul's — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

52 CROSS PURPOSES. a man to whom, as Tom believed, a4 had given her maiden heart. “Vou are too fond of doing that, T’om,’’ said the eitl, slowly, looking him straightin the eyes. *‘Don’t deny it. I’ve found you out time after time. How often have you allowed Harry’s mistakes to rest upon your shoulders to—to spare me pain ?”’ The color deepened in her cheeks, and there was something not far removed from anger in her voice. ‘“‘And how often have I seen through it all?’’ she went on, more quickly. ‘‘And wondered why you did it? Oh, so many, many times! I’ve let you think I was deceived, because—— No! I won’t tell you! You—you don’t deserve it.” Tom, his heart beating quickly, came nearer to her, until, as he bent over her, he inhaled the fra- erance of her hair. ‘“Then it must be something I should like to hear,”’ he murmured, eagerly. A criinson flush suffused Aileen’s cheek and neck, and she drooped her head. When, in another moment she looked up, she was smiling through her blushes. ‘Well, then,’’ she said, ‘‘the reason I have shut my eyes to your most transparent fibs was because I have sometimes thought that.to spare me pain was a pleasure to you, Tom.’’ The sweetness of her voice, the glance of her lovely eyes, the closeness of her beloved presence, (elo) Gomicbooks