A Struggle for a Ring — page 143: what you’re looking at

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

#75 A DREAM BY THE SEA.’ 139 would go away to Gibraltar, perhaps die there. What would it matter? Life was no longer sweet for him since it did not hold Lady Ethel. He drank his cup of poison slowly, surely, knowing it was poison—knowing that it would destroy him, yet un- able to put down the fatal cup, which, when once tasted, clings to the lips. He counted the hours until the noon of Friday, as men count the hours before execution. He was so absorbed in his love, so completely possessed by the idea that, even had he been free, her beauty was not for him, that he never dreamed of danger for her. They had walked down to the shore one beautiful evening, when the wind was still, and the stars shining on the sea. . They stood together on the sands while the waves came rolling’-in, and broke into a thousand star-lit ripples at their feet. He stooped and raised some of the salt water in his hand. “ ‘‘T wonder,” he said, ‘‘if you will think of me when you watch the sea?” ‘‘Certainly I shall,” she replied. ‘‘ You do not sup- pose that I forget my friends so easily, do you?” “Am I your friend, Lady Ethel? Ah! you have so many friends. The moon shines on many brooks; the brooks see but one moon. You are the moon, and lam only one of the brooks.” She laughed the gay, rippling laugh that stirred his. pulses like sweet wine. ‘«‘T think,” she replied, that you are a very favored brook. It seems to me that I shine, as you express it, a great deal upon you.” ‘* Yes; but the light will soon be withdrawn,” he said, sadly. Gomichoo “S (elo) m