Should She Have Left Him? — page 255: what you’re looking at

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

DOROTH Y’S PROPOSAL. 249 gravely, and turning to the others: ‘The question with me must always be the happiness of Mrs. Tres cotte. She has sacrificed much to continue in com- panionship with me, and to secure her happiness is only that gratitude which I should show her. The human heart isa mystery. The will does not always control it. On the contrary often the will is sub- ordinate. The human heart has laws of its own, and those laws, while often working in harmony with, are not builded in, the logic of the mind. Nowwith this preface I must ask, Will Mrs. Trescotte be happy in the realization of this proposition? I have answered the question of my duty to the boy, by putting first, and before it, my duty to Mrs. Tres- cotte. Now, may not the presence of the child, daily and hourly, be a vastly different thing in the realization, than when in anticipation it is viewed through the medium of exalted imagination and high purpose? To have that child enter our house and destroy our domestic peace, as it already has that of Mr. and Mrs. Adams, would be to work great harm, without accomplishing good to any- body.” . He waited for an answer. There was silence. Mrs. Trevor-Allen looked anxiously at Dorothy and she was sitting with head bent. At length the lawyer said: “But one person can answer your question.” “And I am that person,” said Dorothy, lifting her: head and looking at Trescotte very steadily, though her voice was low and somewhat shaken. “There CoMmicloe KS C@© 3