The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 292: what you’re looking at

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

THE PRECEPTOR AND HIS PUPIL 279 of her own to Edmund Saxondale than she was, she would have forgotten all such plight and troth at that instant, because her own feelings: were stronger than herself. “No,” she said, murmuringly, as if it were the silvery flow of a crystal streamlet that was wafting soft spirit voices upon its surface, ‘‘ I wish to recall nothing, I do not now repent of what has just taken place.”’ “Oh, then you love me, you love me! ”’ exclaimed Deveril, in a tone of swelling enthusiasm and gushing rapture, and again and again did he press to his lips the fair hand that was now completely abandoned to him. “ But ah! reflect, Lady Florina,” he said, a cloud suddenly settling upon his countenance, ‘‘ all the brilliant prospects of your hfe may be at stake. If you condescend to bestow your hand upon me, you become the bride of the humble and obscure artist.”’ “But I become the bride of him whom I can love,”’ observed Florina, in a low, soft voice, full of an ineffable sincerity. ‘And you will renounce the coronet of Saxondale for me?’ asked Deveril, his cheeks glowing with rapture. ‘‘ Were it a diadem I would renounce it for you,” rejoined the patrician maiden. “Oh, is it possible that such bliss is a reality? Can it be otherwise than a dream?” cried Deveril, once more falling upon his knees at the feet of Lady Florina. Then as he gazed up into her countenance, he said, with a mingled earnestness and impassioned emotion, “ If for my sake you consent to sacrifice all those prospects which the world deems brilliant and dazzling, if for the love of me, the humble and obscure artist, you renounce that position which society considers so desirable, you lay me under an immensity of obligation which only can be repaid by a love so fond, so tender, and so faithful that never did poet dream of such a love nor novelist depict it. But is this all that I can give in return for the vastness of the sacrifice which you will make for me? Yes, I can offer you no other riches than the wealth of a heart’s devotion, the opulence of feelings that shall have no other aim nor endeavour than to ensure your happiness, the treasure,of an enthusiastic adoration of which thine image alone shall ever reign the idol. Such, Florina, is all that I can offer you, all that I can lay at your feet, in return for this love of yours.” GomiiGcaooks (FO)