Thrice Wedded, but Only Once a Wife — page 71: what you’re looking at

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62 : THRICE WEDDED. smile? Has your heart no welcome for me? You do not answer. Oh, my love, my love! do not send me from you, [ pray! Give me what I ask, else my heart will break.’ ‘‘Wredrich,” she began, and then hesitated. ‘‘Ah, darling, thank you tor uttering that one word. Bless you. You will give yourself to me—you are mine!” He passed his arm around her waist, and drawing her tenderly toward him bent a look of eager love upon her fair face. But she quietly disengaged herself from his embrace, and though the tears were in her lovely eyes, and her voice trem- bled with every word she uttered, there was a quiet firmness ~ in her manner that crushed every atom of hope from his breast. “Mr. Weimher, I am pained beyond measure at your words, for they make me feel as if I had deceived you with 7 false hopes; but what you ask can never be She paused a moment, then went on, sadly: _©T have loved you—nay, hear me,” she added, quickly, as he flashed a look of joy at her—‘‘I have respected you as a friend, and loved you as I would a brother, but I never dreamed you cherished a deeper feeling forme. I thought aes Nettie Allen had your heart’s best and deepest devo- tion!’ | “Oh, Dora, my lost love, I cannot bear this,” he groaned. — ‘““Yes, my friend, you must bear it, though it pains me to aay it. Ihave always treated you openly and frankly, have not?” ° “Yes, but—oh, eruel fate! I had so hoped there might be something deeper beneath.” ‘‘Forgive me, Fredrich, if I have unintentionally misled you. But I can never give you more than a sister’s affec- tion, and that you shall have.” . “But, Dora, I will give you time, and perhaps you can learn to love me as something nearer. Oh, if you will try,” pleaded the disappointed man. _ “My poor.friend, it can never, never be. It is an utter impossibility!” she replied, weeping bitterly. After a few moments spent in deep thought, she continued: ‘“‘Listen,. Mr. Weimher, and I will tell you a secret. No one knows it. It is a story of the past, and I tell it to you to prove to you how hopeless it is for you to love me. My friend, I may trust you? You will not betray me?’ comicbooks.co =