Weaker than a Woman — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. 23 4 man she was accustomed to say there was mischief. “If you want anything done well, do it yourself,” she coun- seled: “do not leave it to men.” She had a certain convic- tion that if the world were governed by women it would be quite another place. She did not dislike men, she had simply a superb contempt for them—a lofty pity and com- passion that were infinitely amusing even to the objects of them. It was the puzzle of the whole neighborhood how so sweet a girl as Eve Lester could have grown up under the charge of one like her Aunt Jane. Eve was not beautiful. She was the perfect type of an English girl—graceful, healthy, with a rounded figure, a clear complexion, fair brown hair, red, ripe lips, a face that one would call sweet rather than beautiful; the dark gray eyes were clear and tender, long lashes shading them—a frank, noble soul spoke from her eyes; her lps were firm and sensitive, with sweet and gracious curves about them. Of a hun- dred men perhaps ninety-nine would have passed Hive by and thought but little of her; the hundredth would have considered her face one of the sweetest and dearest. There was a quiet dignity about her, a graceful ease and self-pos- session that delighted her aunt. Evelyn hada small for- tune entirely at her own command, but her aunt was al- ways at hand to see that there was no undue expense. The Outlands was a pretty farm not more than half a mile from Lilford, and Miss Lester was supposed to have made money. She, with her niece, belonged to the gentry, but, owing to the elder woman’s peculiarities, the two la- dies visited but seldom and seldom received any visitors. If there was one man in Jane Lester’s eyes less contempt- ible than another it was certainly Felix Lonsdale. “The boy has a beautiful face,” she was accustomed to say of him, “and beauty is a woman’s gift.’’ So because he had a “woman’s gift” Miss Lester looked more kindly on him. She liked to see him at the Outlands. She gave him any amount of good advice; she was pleased that he should be a friend of Evelyn’s. No one was more delighted than Jane Lester to hear of the legacy, but the engagement did not please her so well. Love and marriage were folly in her eyes. “T am disappointed in you, Felix Lonsdale,” she said, sharply. “I thought you had a little more sense than the generality of men. Pray expect no congratulations from me—I have none to give.” But Eve smiled at him with her clear, tender eyes. Eomicbooks €o m