A Struggle for a Ring — page 254: what you’re looking at

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

250 A WIFE'S AGONY. dark cluster of hair seemed to have grown stronger and richer. Yet what Captain Moore had said of him was quite true—he did not look quite happy; there was a story of some kind in his face, a repressed passion and fire, a something that was held back by the force of his iron will. It was a face to be wondered at and worshiped, Alice thought—a face that if it should soften to any woman to win her love would be irresistible. She watched him, knowing that she was quite forgotten. Oh, for once—just for once—to clasp her arms around his neck, to kiss his bonnie face, to look into those dark eyes—only once, then die. She heard Lady Waldrove say : ‘You see, Vivian, we have here your old friend, Lady Ethel Pierpont.” Then she saw her husband’s face change; dark as it was, a red flush burned it, a strange expression came into his eyes, they grew tender as the eyes of a laughing child, then hard, cold, and stern. She saw it and wondered. ‘‘Yes, she is here, and looking more beautiful than - ever, they tell me,” he said. He spoke in a cool, unconcerned tone; but Alice, who knew every tone of his voice, detected the constraint. ‘‘ Were you not surprised to find her unmarried?” asked Lady Gertrude. Again the red flush on the dark face. He turned away. ‘IT cannot tell; sometimes those very beautiful women are hard to please,” he said. | The countess laughed. She threw one white arm round her son’s neck and drew his face down to hers, ‘‘T will tell you what I think, my son,”-she whispered, then she added some few-words Alice did not hear. Eomicbooks.co