Weaker than a Woman — page 148: what you’re looking at

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

5 ~4 i a ail Ld . Ssh Me~s z a . * aw? a“ > ‘ - .. * ‘ . a-»S ia ae « ~ WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. 139 will tell you, Lady Maude. I ran, mad, blind, reckless, from those bells because they are chiming in honor of the marriage of the girl I loved—the girl who had promised to marry me.’ “Surely,” said Lady Maude, with a light breaking over her face, “you do not mean your pretty, golden-haired sweetheart, Violet Haye? Your father told us about her that day at the Towers.” “Yes; she has married Sir Owen Chevenix to-day, and the wedding- bells were driving me mad.” “Poor boy,” said Lady Maude, rather to herself than to — him, “I am not surprised at it. You shall not tell me about it now,” added Lady Maude, after a silence of some few seconds. “Itis the old story, I suppose, of trust and love, folly and treachery. Tell me of your home, your father—I was _ always very fond of your father. How is he? 9%? Sympathy was so sweet. They were sitting under the creat boughs of the spreading elm. Lady Maude’s just and gentle heart ached with pity for him. It seemed to him such relief to talk to her. He felt weak and languid— woman’s sweet, soft words, woman’s pity and sympathy, were very acceptable to him just then. He did not speak of Violet, but he told her the story of his father’s bitter trials—how Mrs. Hardman’s money was left to them, how happy it had made them, what plans and hopes they had built on it; then of the disputed will, the trial, the verdict; how his father’s business had falleu away from him, and his old friends had one by one de-. serted him, all but Eve Lester; and he told her how Eve had come to offer her fortune to them. Lady Maude’s eyes filled with tears as she listened. “That is a girl after my own heart,” she said. ‘That is just one of the things I should have done myself. But do you mean to tell me, Mr. Lonsdale, that this is the outcome of English law? Ihave never heard of so cruel a case. All who know your father know that he is as incapable of doing wrong as any man in England—ain fact, he would not do wrong—he is one of the ‘honestest and noblest of men. I have always heard him so highly spoken of. You do not mean to say that his fellow-townsmen and the old friends who have known him for years stand aloof from him for this?” She spoke with angry indignation that did his heart good to hear. “Tt is true,” he replied; “and, what is more, they have €o mn Gomicbooks