Weaker than a Woman — page 198: what you’re looking at

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

é et “~ ° ~ a * ~ a * > . } dy: - ~ OD nr oe ees TEA Raw Pye ks Yh Pgs eee te Ds 1 Sp Sy eS oy. ca Sa of eee : - ° 4 2 i > %, : : “ te ; , 3%." 2 Td 1 oe Se. ane ; pry > 7 = ” ule ‘ « . wed ® ‘ - . ~ wy ° . ~ _ * i " J WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. 189 goes, you can guess what is almost sure to happen—he will not keep sober. If I do not show it, and he finds out that I have received it—” A shrug of the beautiful shoulder con- veyed the rest. “ What do you advise me to do?” “You must show it to him, my dear; there is no alterna- tive. As steward and patron he must attend—that is, if he is well.” “He ought not to go, mamma. You know what will hap- — pen. Doctor Bell advised me to keep him at home and ~ quite quiet, but if he finds out that this has been withheld from him, I can imagine what will follow” There was no sorrow, no despair in her voice. She merely gave hard, cold utterance to what she knew to be certain. She looked musingly at her mother. Mrs. Haye gazed at her: “You cannot shut yourself away from all society, Violet, because you are afraid that your husband will not behave himself. You might as well be out of the world.” “Well, as matters stand, that is quite true,” she replied. “You do not know, mother, what I suffer when he behaves in that way. I think sometimes that if I had been-born an aristocrat I should not feel itso much. Then I could have - stood aloof from the disgrace; now it falls upon me.” “Nay, that it does not, Violet,” said Mrs. Haye, warmly. “You cannot force Sir Owen to keep sober. He drank be- fore he knew you.” “Yes, that he did. I cannot expect any one to under- stand me, but that is really my feeling, that I share in the disgrace. Still that is not the point in question. Do you advise me to show him this or not?” | “IT think you must show it to him,” said Mrs. Haye, ‘it would not be safe to keep him in ignorance, I am sure, and we must do our best afterward with him. You need not remain very long at the ball, you know.” “T will do as you say, mamma,” she replied; and Mrs. Haye could read neither pleasure nor pain in her face. Left alone again, Violet walked to the window, and stood looking out on the brilliant flowers and the stately trees. “Of all strange turns,” she said to herself, “to think that my life should have taken this—that the brightest part of it is to be spent in keeping a fierce, coarse, violent man sober ?” She was always just. She had sought her own ape it had not been forced upon her. She had that which she had coveted, and she must take the drawbacks with it. She found that she had acted wisely in taking her — Gomicbooks.co ant ie 4