A Struggle for a Ring — page 145: what you’re looking at

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

A DREAM BY THE SEA. 141 and still he spoke no word. That silence became painful at last; then he tried to break the spell—only Heaven knew what the effort cost him. ‘*T shall come back in the course of years, I suppose,” he said, trying to speak lightly; ‘‘but the years bring great changes. You, for instance, Lady Ethel, now you are free from all ties, then you will be the wife of some grand earl or duke, one of the first ladies in the land ; and you will have forgotten that we ever stood together to _ watch the stars shining on the sea.” ‘Do you wish me to remember it, Lord Carsdale?” she asked. He bit his lips and clenched his hands to hold down the hot, passionate words that seemed to spring from his heart to his lips; he did not know what answer to make her; he was at'a stand-still, so remained silent. ‘*Do you not think,” she continued, ‘‘that you are begging the question?” ‘¢ Perhaps I am,” he said, gravely. ‘¢You have no more right to suppose that I shall have married a duke or an earl than I have to think that you will have married a duchess or a countess. ” ‘‘T am quite sure I shall not have done that,” he replied. ‘Then why do you say I shall have done it?” Then he heard plainly the annoyance in her voice, and looking into her beautiful face, he saw by the light of the stars that it was pale and shadowed with something like pain. She spoke as though he had vexed her. ‘*T mean nothing more than this, Lady Ethel, that you are so courted, so beautiful, so beloved, you are sure to marry while I am away; a is not likely that you will remain single all that time.’ (E(0) m (C JOO Seth