A Struggle for a Ring — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

THE SPELL WORKS. 131 senses seemed to steady themselves—the beating, throb- bing pulse to grow still. Then he looked more calmly at the witching loveliness of that most fair face—the face that drove men mad with its beauty. He saw that she was fair as a lily, with the most delicate, dainty coloring, some- thing like a richly-hued peach—a color that seemed to vary with every thought, with every word, that was never for two minutes alike, and that was faint among the hues of heaven. She had dark eyes, proud and sweet, with a golden glow in their splendid depths—eyes that haunted one, perfect in color, in shape and expression; the only fault that even the most severe of critics could find was that the beautiful mouth was a trifle too proud; there was something—a thought too haughty in the curves of the lips; but when she smiled, and the pearly teeth gleamed through the scarlet lips, that mouth was almost divine in its beauty. He saw then that the dark, rippling hair had also a golden light in it. In her evening dress of white silk and scarlet flowers she looked more lovely than he had thought it was given to any human being to look. He had lost himself completely; he had forgotten the whole world in the charm of that most beautiful woman's smile. He took her down to dinner; but it wasa farce. Plate after plate was taken away from before him untouched ; he could neither eat nor drink—he could do nothing but think of her, look at her, listen to her. ‘The countess, among all her engagements, found time to notice that. ‘<The spell has worked,” she said; ‘‘my boy has lost his heart.” It was well for her that she did not know how com- pletely that spell was in vain. The most merciful part of our lives is in the fact that so much is hidden from us, » comicboo (E(0) CS