A Struggle for a Ring — page 162: what you’re looking at

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

158 THE MEETING. been gone all these weeks, and she could count on her fingers the number of letters he had written. None of them had been particularly affectionate, but the two last _. had been worse than any other—they had been written in such haste, and they said so little. On this morning three lines, written in pencil, came by post, merely asking her to think over what arrangements she would like to make during his absence, as he was going abroad. It would have seemed more natural that she should have preferred to remain at home, but home was not the happiest place possible for her. Her father was always occupied, and when he had a little leisure he preferred his pipe and glass to any other kind of enjoyment; then her mother made every one miserable by her complaining ; then Hettie and Frank carried on such a perpetual warfare that it occupied half her time in trying to make peace between them ; and Alice had plans of her own. She had decided what it was wisest and best to do. She must, while her husband was away, make herself a lady in every sense of the word—she must do her best to acquire all the habits, the refinements, the graces of the society to which he belonged. She had had education enough of one kind, new she wanted that which only comes from mixing in good society, for it was only in meeting him as his equal that she could ever hope to win his love. She understood it all so perfectly, his kindly toleration, his kindly indiffer- ence, his kindly intentions—how he meant always to be good and kind to her, but how far he was from loving her. ‘‘And I am ambitious, my darling husband,” she said ; ‘*T shall not rest satisfied with your liking, I must have your love. Even should it take years to win it, I will win it at last, because I love you so dearly and so well.” She had decided that while he was away she would EOMmIcboo Ss.