A Struggle for a Ring — page 336: what you’re looking at

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

332 “DO YOU LOVE ME?” showed him that she would never give any sign of her love unless he asked for it. ‘“¢T must ask her if it be true,” he said. ‘‘ Yet how can 1?—in what words? She will think meacoxcomb. Still it must be done. I can decide on no plan, settle no action, arrange nothing, until I know whether she loves ? me. Having formed some kind cf plan was a relief to his mind; he would wait his opportunity, and then quietly, without any preamble, in brief words, he would ask Lady Ethel if she cared for him. With ail his faults there was such a vein of straightforward earnestness in his character that he saw nothing strange or singular in such a course of proceeding. He felt somewhat at ease. Just as he crossed the lawn, for he had been smoking in the grounds, he met the earl, who asked him if he would join him ina ride round the park. A few minutes afterward Lord Carsdale entered the morning-room, where his mother, Lady Ethel, Lady Ger- trude, and Ailie were. He laid one of his riding-gloves on the table. ‘‘Jam one of the most unfortunate of men,” he said; ‘fevery button belonging to me comes off twice as often as those belonging to other men. See, these are both gone.” He laid the glove down upon the table. ‘¢T will do it,” said Lady Ethel. But before she could reach it Ailie had raised the glove from the table. ‘‘I have my work-box here,’’ she said, quietly, going over to the little stand on which the box stood. Lady Ethel would have given anything to have stitched comicbooks (EO)