Vashti's Fate — page 298: what you’re looking at

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

LETTERS, | 293 Better that she should never know it if he repudiates her because she is blind.” To this letter, in due time, Nora received the following answer : ““My Dear Nora :—lI‘learn, upon inquiry, that Profes- sor Robert Thorpe was living some three months since. He did escape shipwreck, and there is.no doubt that it is the man you are inquiring for. I have every reason to think that he was here at the time you wrote, and that be- ing the case, he could hardly have missed receiving your letter. An intimate friend of his here tells me a very in- tricate story of the gentleman’s enthrallment years ago by a Miss Bond—that she jilted him for a Mr. Clair. He says that Professor Thorpe never recovered from the shock of her heartless conduct, and that he never forgot his love for her, but that when he met her a widow—Mrs. St. Clair—he was completely fascinated by her attractions. He is now, or was at last accounts, in Paris, whither, it is popularly averred, he has followed Mrs. St. Clair. This may be all gossip, and it may have its foundation in truth. I intend to sift the matter immediately, and shall only wait till I hear from you to set off in search of him. Necessarily, this trip will postpone our wedding-day ; but if I bring re- joicing for the heart of our dear Vashti, we shall not regret it, and even if the worst should prove true, and Thorpe be a villain, at least there will be some comfort in having all uncertainty removed.” GOmMmIcboo cS co m