Should She Have Left Him? — page 52: what you’re looking at

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

A GIRL BECOMES A WOMAN. 39 its doors against me. Why? Because I have been _ unfortunate, though I am neither wrong nor vicious. To my world there is no difference between myself, the victim of a misfortune, and the young girl who has weakly and basely yielded to the tempter, the victim of her own passions. That is my position.” This young girl, barely twenty, puzzled the astute lawyer. Had he not been a witness of that brief scene with Trescotte he would have declared that she was a glittering block of ice; therefore he con- cluded it was an exhibition of marvelous self-con- trol, so calm and emotionless did she seem to be. It never occurred to this astute man of the world that he was a witness of the processes of an evolu- tion. Before he could reply she went on: “ There are things which with all your wisdom you cannot comprehend—things only a woman can, and Icannot tell you. But there is something dearer to a woman, whether the Church has pronounced its sacrament over her or not, than reputation or life, and if this is struck at, she will resent it with all the power she has. At this, my world strikes madly, and it will strike at mine when it is mine. You instruct me asto my position? You have not the slightest comprehension of it.” There was no doubt as to her emotion now. He did not understand her meaning, but he felt her withering contempt. | “I meant to advise,” he replied rather humbly, to his own annoyance, “ your immediate return to your father. It is a duty you owe to yourself.” GOMMGIOO cS (GO)