Weaker than a Woman — page 214: what you’re looking at

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

WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. NOB a shadow over it. Itis not the face of a happy woman, is — it, Lady Maude ?” | ‘No, not quite,” she replied, hesitatingly. “Ts Lady Chevenix happy?” he asked. She looked up at him. “My dear major, what a question to ask me!” she re- plied. “Who shall say which of us is happy? I think Lady Chevenix loves wealth and position better than any- os thing in the world—and she has both.” “Ts it well for us to have our heart’s desires?” he asked, eravely. “I have often wondered about that.” “T cannot tell,” replied Lady Maude—"I have not mine.” — “Nor I,” said the major, “but this beautiful lady, you say, has hers?” He thought Lady Maude singularly reticent on the sub- ject, the fact being that she never lked to hear Lady Chevenix mentioned. She could not forgive her for all she had made Felix suffer; she could not bear to think of so worthy a young fellow having been made wretched through the caprice of a woman. She never liked to remember the day and the hour in which she had found him stricken like one dead by the treachery of a false woman. She said as little as possible about Lady Chevenix at all times. . She was half vexed that Major Rawson should ad- mire her, for, if Lady Maude had in her noble heart one weakness, it was a great admiration for the hero of the Victoria Cross. She would have liked to think that he was above the weakness of admiring a face merely because it — was beautiful; she would have felt better pleased if he had praised it for being noble. Lady Maude admired nobility more than beauty, and could not understand any man being a slave to beauty. She liked Major Rawson, and she said to herself now, in her exalted fashion, that he was the kind of hero she ap- proved of. Her noble face brightened with happiness when he was by her side; she liked to hear him speak; his pres- ence was a source of unwonted pleasure to her. She was too proud and stately to say to herself that she cared for him in any way, though she had a great admiration for him. But the day of the garden-party at Garswood was to be one to be rememebred with pleasure by both of them, for it was the day on which they first began to understand that each had conceived a friendship for the other. The brave and simple-hearted soldier could not compre- hend why. Lady Chevenix had given up Ielix Lonsdale for __