Weaker than a Woman — page 122: what you’re looking at

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

a Pie ae a - . ot < WEAKER THAN A WOMAN 113 it would be needless cruelty for the marriage to be cele- brated just before his eyes. “It will be hard enough,” she said to herself, “ without that.” | So all was arranged as she desired. Sir Owen went to North Alton, and the beautiful, fickle girl who had loved Felix Lonsdale and given him up, plighted her troth to a man she did not love, plighted it because he was rich. He had taken with him a magnificent diamond ring, which was to be the pledge of their engagement; and, as he placed it on her finger, he looked wistfully into her face. “You care for me a little, Violet, do you not? You area cold bride, after all, fora man to win. If I thought you really liked that lawyer better than me, | would not ask you to marry me, upon my soul I would not. I give you all I have—my love and my fortune. Surely you have a smile and a kind word to give me in return!” No wonder that he spoke in that strain to her. She was too weak ever to be a great sinner, too weak to sin and for- get her sin. It looked her in the face now as she _ stood with the light of the baronet’s eyes upon her, the dia- mond ring on her finger, contrasting the wooing of her two lovers, and knowing full well which was best. “Am I not kind?” she asked, with an exquisite smile; a” smile that pleased him so that he clasped her in his arms and kissed her. When he did so she wished herself dead. She said to herself that she could not go through with this new engage- ment; that she must let the wealth, the rank, the title pass; that she must give all up and go back to Felix. She loved Felix, and she did not, nor would she ever love Sir Owen. | She had a few minutes for these reflections, and then he was telling her of the future, of all she would enjoy, how people would envy her, and what a position she would take in the great, bright world. She listened, for the words were pleasant, and forgot her pain. To Felix Lonsdale there came strange rumors, but he would not believe any of them. He had implicit faith in Violet, implicit trust. Until she told him that she was false to him, he should not believe one word to that effect. One morning he received two letters. One was from Vio- let, and said: “Try to forget me, Felix. I have never been worthy of the great love you have given me; Iam not worthy of it now. Try to forget me; forI have been thinking it all over, andI can see that our ens EOmicboo cS (Elo) o = + ebags _ 4 ee ‘ ais . .