A Struggle for a Ring — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

252 A WIFE’S AGONY. the only day she had ever asked to be excused .Lady Wal- drove had said to her: ‘‘Tam sorry your head aches, Miss Derwent; you can rest it afterward; but I mas have some one near me to remember trifles to: me.’ After that she never asked to absent herself again. She bathed her face in cool, fragrant waters. After all, what did it matter? Who would care whether she had been crying or not? Who among that brilliant, well- dressed party—who would think of her? Yet the pale, passionate beauty of that face might have thrilled men’s hearts as the wind does the jessamine flower. She went down to the drawing-room, A large party was assembled there, all vieing with each other in paying attention to the new-comer, ‘Then,. when the time came that they. should go down to dinner, she watched the little eroup; she saw her husband's dark, handsome head bent over rich coils of golden hair, crowned with crimson roses; she saw them together, her husband and Lady Ethel. She owned to herself that nature must have in- tended them for each other—she so tall, so fair, so lovely, he in all the dark, proud beauty of his manhood. ‘A splendid pair,” she heard whispered; ‘‘so well matched.” _ And it was with the utmost difficulty that she refrained from crying out: _ ‘*He is my husband! We were married. five years ago!” - But she did refrain, let it cost her what it might, oe cComicboo (ee) S