His Other Wife: A Novel — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

142 THE PLOTTERS. scandals attaching to Mr. Vernois’ character had intruded within the seclusion of Lucerne. For the rest, a less adroit man would have found ample occasion to interest an ap- preciative woman in the same house with him, and con- stantly exposed to his society, as Faith was, albeit the clever, alert little governess was never long absent from their company. Without being in the least obtrusive, Alice Draper man-’ aged to keep within ear-shot of her young pupil whenever there seemed to be a chance for a sefe-a-/efe between Faith and the privileged guest of Mrs. Croft. So deeply and confidingly had Faith learned to love and admire the geni- uine, honest, and cultured woman to whom her education had been intrusted, and who was also her sole companion among the strange natures that composed the Lucerne household, that she seemed never to object to Miss Dra- per’s participation in all her conversations, walks, or drives with the handsome creole. On the contrary, she made a point of extending to Miss Draper all the invitaticns with which Vernois honored her. This, of course, was to the last degree obnoxious to the imperious character of Ver- nois, and perhaps this impediment to unrestricted associa- tion with the girl only served to augment his fancy for her. Like all vain men who have achieved great success with women, he detested contradiction from them, As he lay pondering the situation, with his dreamy eyes fixed on the calm, silvery waters of the lake, and his elegant person reclined on the shelving bank, the sound Eomicbooks. co