The Price He Paid — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

A PLAIN TALK. 37 The baroness had recourse to her handkerchief again. , “ Arno you do not know how cruel your words are. Have you no pity, no consideration for a heart-- broken widow?” | Raven made no reply, but his eyes traveled slowly over the lady’s elegant gray silk dress. She had promptly laid aside her mourning at the expiration of the year’s widowhood, knowing that black was unbecoming toher. The unmistakable irony she now detected in her brother-in-law’s glance called up to her cheeks a slight flush of anger, or of con- fusion, as she went on: | “Tam only just beginning to hold up my head a httle. If you knew what cares, what humiliations, - preceded that last terrible catastrophe, what losses unexpectedly befell us on all sides. Oh, it was too horrible!” A faint, sarcastic smile flickered about the baron’s lips. He knew right well that the husband’s losses had overtaken him at the gaming-table, and that the wife’s one care and anxiety had been to eclipse all the other ladies of the capital by the superior richness of her toilets and the handsome appoint- | ments of her equipages. At her father’s death the baron had inherited the property conjointly with her sister. Her share had been squandered to the last penny, while Madame von Raven’s fortune remained intact in her husband’s hands. “Knough!” he said, waiving the topic. “Let us say no moreon this disageeable subject. I have offered youa home under my roof, andl am glad that you have accepted the proposal. Since my wife’s death, I have been in some degree dependent on strangers, who preside well enough over the establishment, but who cannot in all things fill the place of the mistress of the house. You, Matiida, know how to entertain, and like receptions, fetes, dinners, and the like—now it is precisely in regard to these matters that Ihave felt a want. Our interests- coincide, you see, and I have no doubt we shall be mutually satisfied with each other.” He spoke in his usual cool and measured tone. EGOomichboo Ss (E(0)