A Struggle for a Ring — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

20. A MEETING, AND A PROMISE. and a crimson flush covered her face. He took her hand 2: in his. ‘‘ Nay,” he said, ‘‘do not fear to tell me. I feel sure that we are destined to see each otheragain. If you will only say that you care for it, I will manage it. Do you care?” The girl did not live who could have resisted the charm of that caressing manner, that fascinating smile and voice, ‘‘Do you care?” he whispered again, “Yes,” she replied. The next moment he was gone, and she heard Mrs. Chawner’s heavy footsteps in the corridor. She had just time to turn away to hide her flushed face and trembling hands at the window. Mrs. Chawner came with a long story of the cook’s negligence. Alice never heard one word; she had gone into fairy-land; she might suffer there, but she would never leave it again; the world had changed for her in those few minutes. Then a messenger came to say that Lord Vivian wished to see the house- keeper at once—would she come to his room? Lord Vivian! The name struck her at once—it was Lord Vivian she had seen. Perhaps those who read have had their love in their ~ youth, and can remember how fair and sweet that love- dream was. To Alice Derwent—Alice who had never known one hour of real enjoyment, who lived in dreams, not realities—it seemed as though ype had found.heaven on earth. That same evening she received a note; long years afterward every word of it seemed to burn in heart and brain, yet it was only a boy's foolish love-letter, with less of truth, less of meaning than lies in the birds’ song or the winds’ whisper. It said: > E€omichbooks.co