A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

GLIMPSES ONLY. 83 there is an impassable barrier between his love and his con- fession.”’ ‘* What is that barrier?” ** [do not know.”’ ‘* Do you suspect?’’ ‘** T do not; but 1t must be something terrible to his mind, or he would not have acted the cowardly part he has. Close as is our friendship, he in plain words told me 1 could put any construction on his conduct I pleased, rather than tell me the real cause of his extraordinary determination. Ma- dam, it’s the mystery of my life. If he were a criminal, and feared sudden exposure, he could not, under the cir- cumstances, have acted more strangely. His conduct is jncomprehensible. I have studied and studied, and I fail to settle upon the slightest suspicion cuncerning the spectre that has risen between him and his love.’’ ‘* He confessed a love?”’ ** Yes.’’ | Laurence still excused himself by assuming a latitude in the question which permitted his positive answer. Had the question come, ‘* Did he confess it in words?’’ he would have been at a loss how to answer, or, answering truthfully, would have been forced to an explanation. ‘*'Then you have no suspicion even as to the reason for his conduct?’’ ‘* Absolutely no suspicion whatever. I will say this: to his mind it appears a conclusive justification of his action; to his mind it appears as a barrier which can never be re- moved, never explained.’’ ** And what do you think?’ Gomichbooks (E@)