Weaker than a Woman — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

120 WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. dream that will soon pass. They have persuaded you to — say what you did. It was not my Violet who spoke, from whose heart those worldly thoughts and worldly sayings came. They have persuaded you, and talked to -you, until your thoughts and ideas are all confused. Violet, sweet, forget all they have advised, forget this wretched inter- view. You cannot mean what you have said. Nothing so beautiful could be so false; nothing so fair could be so cruel. Let us forget it, my darling. I forgive it all, for I know it has been taught to you. Violet, let us bury, the past wretched weeks. Let us begin again; you with re- newed faith in me, I with my old love and old faith in you —faith and love which have never varied, and never will. Will you listen to me, Violet?” “TI cannot,” she eried, and he felt the shudder that passed over her frame. “I cannot, Felix.” “Have you ceased to love me, Violet?” he asked, quietly. “No!” she cried. “Oh, do forgive me, Felix! I wish I had !” ‘You still care for me?” he asked. It seemed some relief to her to cry out. that she did care for him; to lay her golden head on his breast, and moan out that she wished she were dead. His whole face bright- ened and changed as he heard the words. “You still care for me, my darling,” he said, gently; “why, then, Violet, matters must come right in the end. This dark hour will pass, and happiness will dawn upon Us. 79 So she lay sobbing near the noble heart she was break- ing, while the wind wailed round them with a strange, mournful sound. Violet was the first to speak. She raised her lovely face all wet with tears. “You do not understand, Felix,” she said, quietly. “Ido love you; that makes my cowardice all the greater. I love you, but I can never marry you, because you cannot give — me that which my soul loves best.” ‘But what if I do give it to you, Violet ; what then?” he asked. | 3 “You cannot; you must work all your life even for the moderate means that you will have. Do not talk any more about it. Felix, my resolution is fixed as are the stars in heaven; nothing can alter it, nothing can change it. We have made a mistake.” And for the first time during that interview it dawned across him that it was no girlish caprice he had to contend ate