A Struggle for a Ring — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

148 LOVE AND REGRET. instructive: A poor knight-—rich, you understand, in everything but money—falls in love with a beautiful heir- ess; of course he does not tell his love, though she gives him every opportunity; she shows him plainly enough ‘that she loves him, but he cannot see it. She stoops from her high estate almost to woo him, but he thinks the whole world lies between them, and never dreams that the sweet lady loves him.” ‘‘ Well,” said the earl, ‘‘I am greatly interested, Lady Ethel. How does it go on?” She looked up at him with a laughing face. ‘‘T cannot tell you the end of it,” she replied. ‘‘To tell the truth, Lord Waldrove, I have not decided how it shall end. The song is my own.” ‘The song is very beautiful—it must end Leautifully,” ‘said the earl. _ ‘*T will think about it. Perhaps the Faint Heart will ride away without daring to raise his eyes to the star of his love; then she must die broken-hearted, and he will be killed in the wars.” ‘“No,” said the earl; ‘‘let us have a happier ending than that. Let the fair Lady go to him and tell him frankly that his wooing will not be in vain, then finish with the chime of marriage bells.” ~“*But that would not be proper, Lord Waldrove,” she replied, laughingly. ‘‘None of the matrons in Mayfair would allow their daughters to sing such a song; besides which, I am not quite sure he deserves it. If he was so blind and devoid of intelligence as not to find out that the lady loved him, he did not deserve her.” ‘Well, you are the best judge,” said the earl, rising. ‘‘T must leave it to you. For my own part, I like happy “endings to all love affairs,” EGOmiGc eyolo) Ss.