Vashti's Fate — page 297: what you’re looking at

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

292 LETTERS, CHAPTER XXXVL LETTERS. Nora Everleizh and Leon Brownlee were to have been married in June, but immediately after the incidents re- lated in the last chapter, she wrote him a letter, which ultimately was the means of postponing the wedding-day to an indefinite period. She had never before told him of Vashti's secret marriage, and her unhappy history since, for a feeling of delicacy toward the unfortunate girl had restrained her from confiding the sad and humiliating par- ticulars even to her promised husband. Now, however, she felt impelled, from a hope that he might be able to render important assistance, to lay the whole matter before him. A portion of this letter I will extract from : ‘‘As I was one day looking over the columns of a late paper, I came upon the announcement that Professor Rob- ert Thorpe, who had been believed to have been lost by the wreck of the Europa, had made his appearance in the - city, greatly to the surprise and joy of his friends, having been picked up by an outward-bound ship. I immediately wrote to him, informing him of Vashti’s blindness, and begging him, if he still cared for her, to come and see her, or commuicate with me on the subject. I never received any answer, and concluded that he wished to cast her off on account of her misfortune, or else that there was some mistake about his having escaped from the shipwreck. Latterly, however, I begin to suspect myself that I have been hasty in my judgment. Will you, dear Leon, make the necessary inquiries and let me know? [I have never told my sister that I had reason to think her husband alive,