Her Faithful Knight — page 199: what you’re looking at

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

The Truth at Last. 195 her; but I do not wish ever to see her again—nor will you, I am sure, desire that I should do so. Of course, she will never know that the man she, poor soul, loved so madly is her sister’s husband. There is no need for any one to know that. Not one person in the ‘Love’s Right’ company ever suspected it, and that woman at the station would never have recognized me but that she was once very much in love with me, and jealousy gave her intut- tion. My friends and equals don’t know what became of me all those years ; even my mother hardly ever knew any- thing of my movements; and as to Sergius Trevelyan, we can forget him altogether, or suppose him to be still in that charming health resort, Carthage,-in Texas, from which you may remember my college friend wrote to tell me he had seen him pass through with a theatrical company play- ing in ‘Madame Angot.’ ” The Hon. Darcy smiled at this point. Clearly, he was proud of his own cleverness in that matter of the letter. “T happened to have a piece of the Grand Hotel, Carth- age, note paper left, among other mementos OF an ex- tended pilgrimage in the States three years ago,” he said, while he lighted his cigarette, “so as I knew you would be worrying for news of my friend Sergius, I wrote that let- ter to myself to allay your natural anxiety. I don’t at- tempt to defend my action, except by the old adage, that all is fair in love. I had to get you somehow, and I used, and would use again, any and every means within my reach. Love such as mine for you is the greatest motive power in the world. Wherever you are I must follow; your presence intoxicates me; your touch, even in cold friendliness, sends me mad! “You need never be jealous of your sister; the affection which I gave to her was prompted by pity, but chiefly by her likeness to you, and, once possessing the original, I shall never hanker after the pale and faded copy. _Long ‘S (eC)