Weaker than a Woman — page 235: what you’re looking at

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

926 WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. he was told, had not returned, and her ladyship seemed anxious about him. After a little while Felix went into the drawing-room, where Lady Chevenix sat, dressed for din- ner, looking superbly beautiful in a dinner dress of blue velvet and a suite of pearls. She turned to him anxiously. “Sir Owen has not returned,” she said. “I have told them to keep back the dinner until he comes.” He saw that she was terribly anxious, and did his best to cheer her. He went to the balcony, where roses and jessa= mine grew in wild profusion. “Come and look at these flowers, Lady Chevenix,” he said. “I read a beautiful legend about the jessamine the other day.” And while she stood by his side he related it to her. _ The anxious look fell from her face, and her eyes lost their strained, intent expression. He thought, if he could keep her attention engaged until Sir Owen returned, how well it would be—how much pain it would spare her. She _ turned to him suddenly : “Do you think anything can have happened 2” she asked. “Ought I to send servants out to look for Sir Owen ?” ‘Martin is with him,” said Felix. He left her for a few minutes, under the pretext of find- ing something that he had missed. In reality he gave direc- tions for four of the men-servants to mount at once, and ride off in search of their master, and then he returned to Lady Chevenix. “Tam growing terribly frightened, Felix,” she said. In this hour of supreme anxiety all barriers seemed to have fallen between them. She forgot that he was the man she had forsaken and deceived. She thought of him only as one in whom she put infinite trust—in whom she had in- finite faith. He was once more the Felix on whom she had relied from her childhood upward. ‘“T do not think you need be alarmed, Lady Chevenix, and for this reason—Martin is with him. If anything had happened to Sir Owen the groom would have hastened back ; of that you may be quite. sure.” ‘ The thought was reassuring, and Lady Chevenix was re- ieve comicbooks.co