A Struggle for a Ring — page 101: what you’re looking at

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

A PROUD FAMILY. 97 beings; as for his future, her hopes over it were boundless. as the deep sea. She looked round the world of women with dreamy eyes; who was there good enough for him ?— a princess royal, perhaps, but few others. There was just one girl in England whom she thought beautiful enough, good enough, and rich enough to be her son’s wife, and that was the lovely young Lady Ethel Pierpont, only daughter and heiress of Earl Pierpont, of Mount Pleasant and Falmouth Park. ‘That was a match which, from every point of view, would have exactly suited her; but she was too wise to mention it. The Lady Ethel had but just reached her sixteenth year; there was no hurry. The greeting between mother and son was most kindly. He kissed his mother’s face without invitation, then sat down on the amber couch by her side, taking the King Charles on his knee. ‘‘ Floss grows too stout, mother,” he said, laughingly. The countess sank back on the amber satin couch with a languid smile; she was always so unutterably happy when her son was near. -= ‘‘T have thought you long in coming, Vivian,” she said, ~ in her sweet, low voice. ‘‘I have been quite impatient 0 see you.” ‘‘Very gentle impatience, mother,” he replied, laugh- ingly. ‘‘And what has kept you away from me so long, my dear boy?” she asked. ‘‘T have been to France and Switzerland, mother,” he replied. Then he suddenly grew grave with a terrible gravity, for it flashed across him what he had done/ He, the heir of this ancient house, the son of this royal woman, had married a dancing-master’s daughter! It flashed across ecomicbook go Ne