Weaker than a Woman — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. _ 13 yet he had a dim, a faint conviction, that she preferred hm to any other. Now was his opportunity. He was already making a fair income by writing reviews and essays. If his father took Ifim into partnership, his share, though perhaps small at first, would be certain, and would increase. Now was his opportunity ; he would delay no longer, but would at once ask Violet Haye to be his wife. “Tt seems almost too good to be true,” he thought to | himself, “that I should succeed in my profession, that I should win the girl I love for my wife, that I should be happy and blessed. What have I done to deserve it?’ He looked up to the sunlit skies. “Done,” he repeated—* I have done nothing. Itis the goodness of Heaven that has given it to me. Heaven grants all to industry,” he thought, “and while I work I need not fear.” In that hour no thought came to him of the storm-clouds that darken men’s lives—of the terrible tempests that rend heart and brain—of the despair that looks for death as a relief. He saw only the blue sky and the golden sunshine. He saw nothing but the beauty of the fair earth and the laughing sky when he went to woo beautiful Violet Haye and ask her to be his wife. He had been waiting only until he saw a prospect clear and bright before him. Francis Haye might have objected to a man with an un- certain future; Krancis Haye would not object to the junior partner of the old-established house of Lonsdale. He was only twenty-four, and, after selecting a very choice flower for his coat, was to besforgiven, if he looked once at his clear-cut face and dark mustache. As he quitted his father’s house on that lovely summer afternoon there was perhaps not a handsomer, truer, more noble, or gallant - young lover in all broad England than Felix Lonsdale. “Wish me good fortune, madre,” he said, bending to kiss Kate Lonsdale’s lovely face— I am going to the Limes.” Kate looked up with a smile. She made no answer. She kissed him as his own mother would have done, and watched him as he walked down the street. “There is no need to wish him good fortune,” she said to herself; “the girl does not live who would say ‘No’ to him. As she went through her round of duties, Mrs. Lonsdale thought often and anxiously that she would like to know . how Felix was speeding in his wooing. (E (0) Fee (e(oy paylicel exeKo) <3 a |