Witch Hazel; or, The Secret of the Locket — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER VII. SAVED. When Adrien Earlescourt assisted Mra. Grabam to alight in that place of safety she looked gratefully up into his face and said, tremulously : “Mr, Earlescourt, you have saved my life—you have saved two lives this night; no words will ex- press what I feel—may God bless you.” No one can tell what he had suffered since they gtarted from Michigan avenue. Every moment he had expected that their progress would be impeded, that they would become the victims of a fearful panic, and that the flames, so fierce and hungry, would sweep upon them and doom them toa fright- ful death. But for bis coolness, his judgment and courage, it muat have been so. Two or three times his heart had almost failed him in the terrible confusion and excitement which everywhere prevailed, and with that fearful roar sweeping onward in hot pursuit. “We can at least die together,’ he had said again and again, feeling as if it would be easier to die with her than to live without her. But now as he lifted her from the buggy, the sense of relief was so great, his thankfulness so intense, her look of gratitude so earnest, her words so thrill- ing, that he forgot himself and was betrayed into an expression of feeling that he would have given worlds, afterward, to ‘have repressed, for he realized the moment he had spoken how premature, how al- most cruel it must seem to her who had so recently suffered a crushing bereavement. He held both her hands in aclose, almost painful clasp, while he gazed into her upturned face, all his heart in his eyes, and wurmured: “My darling, thank God that you are safe !” A look of astonishment shot over Emelie Graham’s face at these words, then a wave of vivid scarlet flashed over her cheek and brow, and her. a estion- jng eyes drooped before the impassioned & r