Should She Have Left Him? — page 203: what you’re looking at

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

190 SHOULD SHE HAVE LEFT HIM? her wedded life? This was a question Mrs. Courte- nay frequently asked herself, without satisfactory | answer. The fire was gone from Hilda’s eyes and there was listlessness in her manner. It was not because of the Trescotte gossip, for Hilda languidly approved Dorothy’s course, and shocked her mother by remarking indifferently that without the common law marriage phase, she would have approved tt. The promise of social triumphs did not appeal to her. She accepted the programme of social festivi- ties Mrs. Courtenay had laid out for her, with the comment that they were the penalties a bride must endure. She was interested in nothing. Only when there were strangers present, or some of her old rivals on the matrimonial course, was anything seen of that gallant and haughty bearing of the favorite Courtenay daughter. Discreet questioning failed to elicit information. She had enjoyed her trip, she had been charmingly received by Waldemar’s noble relatives, and she had been noticed and compl mented by the emperor. Had Waldemar been — attentive? Oh, yes, he had been all that had been necessary. And here inquiriesended. Mrs. Walde- mar had no complaints to make, and Hilda Courte- nay had passed away. Mrs. Courtenay took up a course of silent observa tion, but with little, if any, more success. What she did learn did not please her. She found that Wal- demar took up his life in New York just as he had laid it down to go abroad on his wedding trip. His stable, his club, and his other pleasures did not lan: COIN @ LOOO cS (GO)