Thrice Lost, Thrice Won — page 230: what you’re looking at

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

ek oe ve sis His Oi Avenger. 885 bi at within, bright lamps, and fragrant flowers, and tropical h heat, and velvet and gilding, and carpets and curtains, made , summer picture of warmth and bloom. E She was quite alone in the long, lofty room, waikins up and down, with an impatient frown on her low, dusk brow, a compression of impatient pain curving the red, beautiful lips. Siamood stars, and rich, os loveliness—ripe as a pome- g ranate. But not all the consciousness of her own beauty could love, and, it seemed, hopelessly. She had always loved him -never more than when, of her own selfish, ambitious will, i “she had given him up; and now she was free, and he was by her side, sand the tables were turned, and “Love was his own _ avenger.” They were both rich now—poverty could stand hepec Et hem no more. He was better than rich—famous. She was more ripely beautiful than ever. Both were still. young. What, then, should hold them apart now ? . "She ground her little white teeth with the old trick-of im- q F ootant rage, aS she saw how futile all her efforts were to re- pendie the dead flame. —_—-~ “Tt is Estelle De Montreuil whe stands between us,” she | ‘thought— “that pale, marble-white, marble-cold statue of pas- _ sionless propriety! She, with the heart of a cucumber fried j in snow—she, without blood enough to sin,.or love, or hate— Ww who goes: placidly on, breaking hearts with her sweet smile a and her golden eyes! Bah! I hate her!” _ e _ The door opened as the vindictive thought- rushed through er mind, and the count’s stately daughter swept in. Re- gally beautiful - as ever—the head and shoulders over her etite cousin, and, as usual, very simply dressed. But the i pi ‘im ver the golden-brown silk she wore, and the ivy crown on the | a h nining coronal of hair matched well the queenly grace of that ay! oudly uplifted head. She looked what she was—the regal dav ishter of a long line of aristocrats. in whose veins the blue h _ Sr had run unpolluted for many centuries. yatient frown darkening her face. -¢ “Still alone, Leonie?” she said. “Are not. the gentlemen ] ae } ring long this. evening ! & ‘What a stupid custom it is, is fol ow v us, and we,” with a second arch smile, “are ar. Ea a wud star “ablaze in her black ERE See thought all. P Outside, the _wintry rain. s. and the wintry wind blew; She was looking really gorgeous in her rosy robes, and Econsole her to-night; for Leonie Rutherford was deeply in | ovely: arms and shoulders eleamed, like ivory against. bronze, © she smiled a little as she looked at her coer, with that — va > vo 2 if? ae: Bh as (E(0) » Ye ‘Pe ef i . ee eae Fe nts OR oe a. ee OS im Eas poe ee ». & 4 i peck eae ee ve . Eomichbooks