Weaker than a Woman — page 275: what you’re looking at

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

7 «aga eM ces WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. boys! She is the pearl, and you never saw her in your hurry to pick up the worthless shining colored glass.” . Hive Lester. How blind he had been! He looked up at ate. “Do you know, madre,” he said, “she has been so much part of my life—all my life—that I have never thought of her apart from myself.” A wise woman always knows when she has said enough. Kate turned the conversation; nor could he persuade her to say more about Eve. But the idea had taken hold of him, and Kate smiled softly to herself on seeing how deeply he was engrossed in thought during the remainder of that evening. Felix had never realized until then what Eve was to him. He went back over all his life. She had been his adviser, his counselor, his friend. She had aroused all noble thoughts in him, all great desires. She had fired his ambi- tion; she had shown him his road in life. He had never dreamed how much he owed to her influence until he thought all this over. He remembered how, in the darkest hour of bis father’s life, when earth was all cold, and the heavens seemed made of brass, she came to his house like an angel of light and consolation. She had offered him her all, and was honestly grieved because he would not take it. As Felix sat thinking of her, he recalled. a thousand. instances of | her sweet wisdom and eenasniinas “It is true,” he mused; “we are sometimes perfectly ig- norant of our greatest blessings. I should never have known all that Eve has been to me until I lost her.” Under this new light, he said to himself that he must see her, he must go over and talk to her, he must discover what she really was to him—how dear, how needful—and he would do it at once; there should be no delay. He went the next day, and the result of their conversa- tion was that he did not leave her until she had promised to be his wife; for he found out that she loved him, and had loved him only all her life—he found out that he had indeed been blind and foolish, for she was really the one great treasure of his life. The engagement afforded the greatest of pleasure to all their friends; there was not one dissentient voice. And now, indeed, Kate Lonsdale was happy. “T shall be the dowager Lady Lonsdale,” she said to ive, with a happy laugh. “There has been only one mis- ~Ecomicbooks.com — ‘ " aa DEALT