Thrice Lost, Thrice Won — page 242: what you’re looking at

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

a | a" ; » ave oe hol. ‘I E ave ‘Been Blessed.” 237 - nothing. But, monsieur, are you quite sure—quite certain Pp Shat the heart you offer me holds no other lodger? Has Madame Rutherford no tiny power of what she once pos- 4 Se ~ gessed completely? Is it all my own? Remember, we De _ Montreuils are a race who brook no rivals.” “You have none; heart and soul I am all yours! I only >} : 199 eaves love—a heart that never before held another image! ‘ 2 ~ She looked at him with gravely earnest eyes. That is your mistake, monsieur. Permit me to rectify = it. My heart-has held another image. ‘leven years ago I _ was as passionately, as intatuatedly in love as it 1s possible 3 ~~for any romantic girl of seventeen to be. I am eight-and- : twenty now, monsieur, and many men have loved me, or told 2 - &The | cient! guess, e: it will; you and I will tell it. - wish I could offer +ou what you so nobly give me, my peer- me so, but until to-night they have told me in vain; for the - __ man I loved so strongly and impetuously well-nigh broke my 2 heart, and all those years have scarcely healed the wound. I 4 ~Joved him very dearly, and he—monsieur, i was no more to . him than the dirt under his feet.” | The artist listened in pale surprise. “He was a brute—an idiot—a blind, besotted imbecile! "Good heavens! that the man should exist whom you could love LVins' ae re or" ee a _ you lové only me?” | Psa “Only you,” with her most radiant srailes “Have I not gaid so? And now that we have made our mutual confession 2 and settled our future plans, suppose we return to the draw- ee ‘ing-room?- They will certainly miss us, and—who knows ?— they may guess the truth. We will find Leonie looking earv- = - ing-knives and strychnine, | am positive. Come!” = _ Without waiting for him, she glided away, with a last 1% nia Se Je in vain! But you have forgotten this cold-blooded ingrate—- E brilliant: glance and smile, and miele calmly with her ce - guests. Sie Bee = - But he did not follow eracdintely. He ee behind, _ to try and realize his supreme bliss—to try and still the mad __ throbbing of his undisciplined heart. we - He tried in vain; for when he came forth, his worn, dark % face told his joyful tale to all beholders, slowing with in- ake delight. ; “Gad!” said George Weaiadetel pulling his mustache medi- ta tively, “Bartram’s been hoisted to-the seventh heaven since nee t into that little room. Look, Mrs. Rutherford—look that ecstatic face! Your cousin was in there, too. Do you suppose that she has had anything to do with it? He may have proposed—I have seen it coming for some days _past—ar aes. agra! ee viaiame but the killed and wounded ri DS *; é ye 7 (E(0) has ee | x EComicbhooks