Weaker than a Woman — page 189: what you’re looking at

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

180 WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. Yet Felix hardly liked it. To have refused Sir Owen’s agency would have been to stand in his father’s light, to — prevent the children from receiving the benefits of an ample income. He would not do that, but when he was in sight of Garswood he hated himself for having come near the place. He could not help wondering how .Lady Cheve-, nix would receive him, what she would say to him,. whether she would be pleased, or the reverse. “Tt can never be pleasant for her to meet me,” he thought. “The sight of me must remind her of her un- faithfulness.” As they came in view of the towers and turrets of Gars- wood he expressed this idea to his father. He wished even then that he could return. He looked anxiously into his father’s face. “It seems to me,” he said “that we have compromised our independence by accepting the agency.” “My dear Felix,” Darcy Lonsdale laughed, “if every man were to carry his private feelings into business, business would soon stop. Men come to my office who have slan- dered me, who helped to raise the cry that I had robbed James Hardman of his rights. I have to forgive them. I do not make friends with them, but I freely forgive them and do business for them; you must do the same. Bear one thing in mind, and you will never be vexed about com- ing here. You are invited here, not as the lover whom Miss Violet Haye in her innocent pride forsook, but as the agent without whose services and restraining hand Sir Owen, rich as he 1s, will soon be ruined.” “There.is common sense in that view,” said Felix. “Then again for your own sake, Felix, forget the past. The world is very unjust. A woman forsaken is always pitied ; a man forsaken ts often laughed at. Let people say how little it must have affected you since you can visit her husband—not how bitterly you must grieve after her since you are compelled to decline all invitations.” And with those words the carriage stopped before the ereat entrance. Father and son entered the superb hall with its ancient oak and armor, its stained glass windows, and an ancient crest emblazond everywhere. - They passed through a broad beautiful corridor where statuary—copies of the great masterpieces of the world— stood, where blooming flowers gave color and fragrance— ‘through magnificent rooms, until they reached the great _ drawing-room where Sir Owen and Lady Chevenix re- »< ot 9 oT re comicbooks.com ” / aa rn ao! Ay Ae a “