A Struggle for a Ring — page 339: what you’re looking at

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

“DO YOU LOVE ME?’ 335 in asking what would otherwise. be a strangely insolent question.” She looked up at him. ‘No question of yours could ever deserve that name,” she said. ‘‘This will, I want to ask you, and I almost hate myself as I do so—I want to ask you = Then he paused. | It seemed easier to die there than to ask that question, which he could not follow by an offer of marriage. He paused, and the brave, handsome face grew white as death. She laid one hand on his arm. ‘You need not fear me,” she said, gently; ‘‘we are, as you say, such old and true friends. I should not have : thought that there was anything on earth you would have feared to say to me.” ‘¢T would sooner face a regiment all with drawn swords than I would ask what I have to ask,” he replied. ‘‘ Before I ask, will you forgive me, Lady Ethel?” ‘‘Ves,” she replied, quietly ; ‘‘you know that I will.” ‘‘Lady Ethel, the question that I want to ask is this: Do you love me?” She made no answer, and he continued: ‘‘Tf I could tell you all—if I could give you the history of the last five years—if I could tell you the story of a—a terrible mistake, you would understand that no light, mean, or unworthy motive prompts me, but a terrible anxiety, the result of which is life or death. I have no vain thought; I ask you the question with the gravest anxiety a man can feel. You are too true and too noble a woman to refuse me an answer. Lady Ethel, do you love me?” ¥ Eomicboo