That Girl of Johnson's — page 207: what you’re looking at

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

196 THAT GIRL OF JOHNSON’S. eying the dainty lady before him with the air of a wounded lord. Then, suddenly changing his tone and manner, he laid one hand on the round arm stretched beside him on the well curb. “Dora,” he said, softly, and she lifted her eyes to his face with a swift change on her own. ‘Dora, dearest, 1 will tell you what no one in the world has ever guessed— which I scarcely guessed myself. You know that I love you, Dora—you know that of all women in the world you are the dearest to me, but you do not know of a dark page in my life, which I turned down almost as soon as it faced me—you do not know, and no one knows, how I was tempted when first I knew your cousin, when first I real- ized what a beautiful being a woman can be, when first I knew that there was a meaning to life of which I had not dreamed till I saw your cousin’s noble daily life. You had just come to the town then; your tender thought for those around you and your unselfish suffering had wakened to me a new thought of woman’s life. But when I saw Dolores with her beautiful, grave, stately grace of manner, and her wonderful, true eyes, I felt that life might be very differ- ent to me were such a woman beside me always to help and comfort me in the hard life a physician to a certain extent must bear. You did not dream, my sweet, tender, true little woman, how I was tempted to betray the trust Charlie had placed in me, leaving the girl in my care to see that she should be guarded from any sadness that was possible to keep from her; to know that she had some friend near her always whom she could trust for help should help and kindness be needed. I came near to lov- ing Dolores Johnson then, my Dora, and to darkening my life with betrayed trust to my friend—for I knew Charlie’s heart then as wellasIdo now. But I could not let the thought dwell with me, and I conquered. I did not ever love Dolores, Dora. She aroused my admiration by her womanly purity and noble self-sacrifice, but that was all. I could easily have brought myself to love her, she was Gomicbooks (<0) Mm ‘