A Struggle for a Ring — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

AN ANXIOUS MOTHER. 155 ‘Refused me what, mother?” he said, quickly. | ‘“‘Refused to be your wife, dear,” said the countess, meekly. ‘No; she could not refuse me, for the simple reason that I have never asked her,” he answered, abruptly. And his lady mother smiled. All, then, was going on well. ‘‘T should like to give you a hint, Vivian,” she said, “if you will not be offended.” ‘*You cannot offend me, mother,” he replied, gently. ‘‘ Hint, or speak straightforwardly, as you like.” ‘‘T think, then, my dear Vivian,” she said—‘‘at.least I am sure, that Lady Ethel likes you.” His face grew pale as death, with great drops of anguish on his brow. ‘‘Likes me, mother?—that beautiful, innocent girl! What do you mean?” ‘‘T mean just what I say,” replied the countess, slowly. ‘‘Lady Ethel likes you so well that if you ask her to be your wife she will not refuse.” ‘“You told me, mother, that her beauty was not for me,” he siid, in a voice of bitter anguish. ‘‘And I believed so;~Lady Pierpont could with justice look much higher; but I repeat that she likes you, Vivian, well enough to be your wife if you ask her.” She might well wonder. He turned abruptly away, with a deep groan. He walked rapidly across the cor- ridor out of sight, his motes watching him, as she said to herself : ‘*Poor boy! he has the love fever, and no mistake.” Lord Carsdale went out of the house, longing to be somewhere alone, where he could give free vent to the anger, the annoyance, the vexation, the regret, and the Gomicbooks (Ele)