Weaker than a Woman — page 247: what you’re looking at

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

- 238 WEAKER THAN A WOMAN ~~. friends—every one wasremembered. The bulk of his for- | tune, with Garswood, was left to his “dearly beloved wife.” There was a very handsome bequest to Francis Haye, and one to the vicar; there was a large sum left to each charity in the neighborhood. There was a murmur when the reading ceased. Every one was pleased. Lady Chevenix bowed as she quitted the room, and the gentlemen stood in little groups to talk about her. “What a fate!” said Lord Arlington. “So young and so beautiful! She will have an income of over thirty thousand pounds per annum, too. What a strange fate !” “That comes of having a beautiful face,” put in frank Captain Hill. “A beautiful face is better than a fortune.” “At times,” said Darcy Lonsdale. “Every beautiful woman is not favored like Lady Chevenix.” Then matters pertaining to the estate were discussed by the executors, and it was arranged that, with the young widow’s consent, all business should still be left in the hands of Mr. Lonsdale. A very different scene was passing in the room where Lady Chevenix sat with her mother. Mrs. Haye was walk- ing up and down, her pride and elation almost more than she could conceal. ‘“T always liked Sir Owen, my dear. I always said that he was a most honorable man. What could be nobler than his treatment of you? I have known such terrible things happen.” | “What kind of things, mamma?” asked the widow, but there was little interest in the tone of her voice. “Terrible things, my dear. I have heard of rich men dying, and leaving a handsome fortune to their wives on condition that they never married again. Now I call that most atrociously mean.” “So it is, mamma,” said Lady Chevenix, “and very wrong, too.” She spoke, however, as one whose thoughts were not with her words. She had untied the widow’s cap, and was caressing with her fingers the long golden hair that fell over her shoulders. Mrs. Haye did not observe her. “Sir Owen, you see, Violet, had more sense than that. I have never heard of a more generous will. Only twenty- six, and you do not look twenty, young, beautiful, with a fortune like that—what more could any woman desire ?” “T desire no more,mamma. I only feel as though I comicbooks.com — _ oe + 7 2 oo OY Fane