A Struggle for a Ring — page 153: what you’re looking at

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

LOVE AND REGRET. 149: The next moment, pale as death, with a strange quiver on his lips and a strange trembling in his strong frame, © Lord Carsdale stood before her. When she saw him her eyes dropped; not once did she raise them to his; she toyed with the jeweled handle of her fan. ‘‘ Lady Ethel,” he said, in a low voice, ‘‘tell me, what does that song mean?” | ‘‘T cannot undertake to explain my songs to every one,” she replied, demurely. ‘‘Of course to Lord Wal- drove one refuses nothing.” | ot ‘Tell me,” he repeated, vehemently, ‘‘what does it mean ?” She rose from her seat and made him a most bewitching courtesy. ‘*You will have plenty of time to think it over on the Rock of Gibraltar,” she said, with a low laugh. ‘‘Lady Ethel, do not be cruel, do not be hard. You know af | Then he stopped abruptly. In honor, what could he say? Nothing of love, that was certain. ‘‘T know what?” she asked. ‘‘ Make haste, Lord Cars- dale—mamma is waiting for me; she has been looking at me ever so long with a look that means it is time for me to be gone. Make haste—what do I know ?” ‘‘T forget. 1 know nothing myself, except that I be- lieve Iam going mad.” ‘¢VYes,” said Lady Ethel; ‘‘you are quite right—I really believe that you are.” | ‘¢Tell me what that song means,” he repeated. ‘She raised her brilliant face to his, bright to the very last, and she would not let him see her pain. ‘If you want to know, you will have to follow me to Gomichoo KS (e(o)