A Struggle for a Ring — page 400: what you’re looking at

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

396 “YOU HAVE CRUELLY MISYUDGED ME.” could insult, mistake, jeer her as they would, she was his wife, at least until the law separated them. ‘‘T advise you for the best,” said Lady Gertrude. ‘‘Go home to your mother; she will be your best friend. And, Miss Derwent’’—here the face of the earl’s daughter flushed hotly, a crimson flush that seemed to burn her face— ‘Miss Derwent, I am older than you, I know more of the world ; believe me, even if my brother, Lord Carsdale, has talked nonsense to you, you must not believe him. You have a fair, attractive face of your own, and, perhaps, admiring that, he has paid you a few idle compliments ; kut, Miss Derwent, you must not believe him.” How she longed to vindicate him, to cry out that he had used no idle word to her, but that he had married her, so that nevera stain should rest on her fair name; yet she was compelled to listen to it all without one word of reply. ‘You ought to know and understand, at your age, that gentlemen are apt to lose their better senses when a pretty girl comes in thtir way; but, my dear Miss Derwent, God has given to that pretty girl the instinct. the sense, and the prudence to take care of herself. How you could have imagined that my brother meant anything, I cannot tell— you have such good sense in other things.” ‘‘T cannot explain, Lady Gertrude; I can only thank you for thinking kindly of me.’ ‘““You must know,” protested Lady Gertrude, ‘‘that when a man of my brother’s rank seems to admire a girl in yours, he never means to make her his wife.- It is not in the order of things that such unequal marriages should - be made. It means—listen to me—it means simply her > ruin.” | ‘Let me say just one thing, Lady Gertrude,” pleaded Alice, ‘‘and that is, I honestly believe your brother, Lord Comic ojo ol Ss - e : { r . , * ‘a ra. 4... se