Richard Forrest, Bachelor — page 165: what you’re looking at

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

156 ARTHUR'S OPINION. queer, but forall that, they do or wear it in their own peculiar way, and tkat is in itself a fascination. Do you understand me? I knew a charming girl, once, who never used any but heliotrope perfume, and there was always the faintest, sweetest odor of it lingering about her, on her loves, her handkerchiefs, her note paper, and to my dying day I will never smell it without being reminded of her. Miss Cameron has this characteristic in a high degree, and unconsciously to yourself, possibly, itis that which has awakened your evident interest in her. It holds one like cast-iron, so beware, Richard, lest it insnare you beyond redemption.”’ ‘‘T grasp your meaning, of course, and acknowledge that she is unlike most other women of her age, but I do not be- lieve that she is without feeling,’’ declared Dick, with a noble scorn for his friend’s warning. ‘‘In fact, I would stake my last dollar that the reverse is the case.”’ ‘‘Or self-contained?”’ ‘*T don’t deny that, but I never saw a woman who seemed to me to be more capable of devotion. Iadmit, though, she has marvelous powers of self-control, and, it may be, has no desire to be other than she is. If her present life suits her, what has she to gain?”’ ‘Good heavens, what an extraordinary proposition! As- suming that she is perfectly contented with her present lot, what else could she have? Nothing on the face of the earth! I sincerely trust she is half-way happy, the poor little soul, and yet, I sometimes think she must be lonely away off here, with only strangers for companions. Irather wish I knew her history. She has asad face, don’t you think? And such big, hungry eyes, somehow I can’t bear to meet them straight. I wonder if she ever had a disap- Gomichbookssco