Weaker than a Woman — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

_ one would bear animosity against the young and charming Lady Chevenix. Whenshe came back again she and Felix would be friends. She would make overtures of friendship to him, and he would not decline them; he had always been so fond of her—poor Felix! So she went away the next day to London, trying to forget the past and to think of the future. She did not care to remember that morning found her pillow wet with tears, for she had been dreaming of Felix. CHAPTER XXIV. THE WORLD A BATTLE-FIELD. Felix Lonsdale had tried his best; he had done hard bat- tle with his sorrow—the sorrow that had come to him while the summer moon was shining and the corn stood ripe in the fields. He had done hard, fierce, terrible battle with it. It stood there éver by his side ; no one had de- tected it yet—its presence was a secret from every one ex- cept himself. It stood by the table, and made the sight of all food loathsome to him; it stood by his books and _ papers, and its dark shadows made them all illegible to him—he read no words save these—that Violet was false to him ; it- stood by his pillow and would not let him sleep; it came between him and the brightness of earth—between him and the mercy of Heaven. He was stunned, dazed, and bewildered by it; still he did brave battle with it. He looked at the invalid father, at the kindly mother, at the “army” of little ones; there was work to do, and he must doit. The home must be kept up, business attended to; money must be made, the home must not be neglected. Indulgence in sorrow was not a luxury for him. He hardened his heart; he said that there was neither mercy nor kindness nor love in the world. He could not see the kindly look in Katie’s tender eyes; he would not kiss the children’s faces; when the Sabbath bells chimed he went miles away. Fate had been cruel to him, he would harden himself; he would be proud and stern, cold and unbending—he would give back what he had received. So hour by hour and day by day he hardened his heart, hardened his nature, and only Heaven knew what he suffered. | Within a week after his farewell to Violet the handsome - face had grown so haggard that it was hardly recognizable ; 2 the kindly eyes had a wild, weird expression, as though he ; a ——— - WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. : 125 co m Eomichooks