A Heart's Bitterness — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

A HEART’S BITTERNESS. | 37 a broken voice; ‘‘ but in them all I have loved you still. Love for another has never entered my soul. What has changed you? Was it true, then, that your love for me-— passed as a cloud in asummer sky? Was it true that you were too young for permanent love, and forgot it in a day?” ‘* You ask me such questions?” said Violet, panting. ‘‘ You, who went away and forgot me? You, who promised to write to me, and never wrote one word, while I waited and believed in you until I learned, too late, that my grand- mother’s warnings were true, and that all men are deceivers? You thought I was only a little lonely orphan, to be flirted _ with for a vacation time, and then forgotten.” — “‘ Never, never!” cried Keith. ‘I loved you with all my soul; I do still. And I know you loved me, and your eyes, although you are angry now, show that you have not for- gotten, and you love me yet.” : ““No, no; I donot. It is false; I will not.” ‘‘But you must. Love will not be denied in your heart; iove is imperial, and I am true. What do you mean by saying I never wrote you? I wrote you again and again— aily.” ‘“No, you did not. Kate went to the address we had ar- ranged, and there was never one letterthere. You said you loved me, and you did not. ‘That is my fate—always to be made a toy, and deceived by pretenses of love. Leave me. I hate you.” } | ‘“‘ Hate me? and for what, Violet?” Re ‘‘ For deceiving me. You deceived me by your false name. Did you not call yourself Kenneth Howard, and ‘you were Kenneth Keith? Did you not deceive me by say- ing you loved me, when you did not, and by promising to write and always be true, when you did not, and now, by ‘saying you wrote, when you never wrote at all? You have no right to speak to me in this way. It is wicked.” «‘Tt is not wicked to tell the truth,” said Keith, stoutly. ‘¢My name is Kenneth Howard, Lord Keith. Until I was of age, all my college friends called me Howard oftener than Keith. It was the name I preferred. I did love you; I do love you. And I did write. I wrote again and again. Then, I had a letter from your grandmother, forbidding me - to write any more. She said it was all childish folly, al- ready forgotten by you; that you declined any further ac- quaintance.”’ | , Eomicbooks.¢o