Weaker than a Woman — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

26 WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. that if I made an effort I could be happy and contented here. What is the effort that I have to make? I love Felix ; nothing on earth can make me alter that fact.” Yet she did not feel quite at ease. There was a vague, shadowy feeling of something wanting that she had not yet found. Felix amused her with his raptures when he returned. It was so novel, so delightful to see her there; and the day was never forgotten by him, because she had been gracious to him upon it. CHAPTER V. “VOU WILL NEED A FRIEND.” The inhabitants of Lilford were pleased at Darcy Lons- dale’s good fortune. He deserved it, they said; his honest, honorable, industrious life had been spent among them ; they had known him as boy and man; they had been inter- ested in his marriages, in his children, in his business; he was one of themselves; they had been interested in hig joys and sorrows and in his welfare, and now they were pleased at his good fortune. With this sudden and unexpected gleam of prosperity came other gleams; his business increased; and Darcy Lonsdale owned to himself that he was a most fortunate man. He removed with his household to Vale House; and Felix began to think that he might induce Violet to marry him before the end of the year. He did not often speak to her of their marriage, for it was a difficult task ; she would evade the question in a hundred different ways; she would laugh, yet look charming—do anything, in fact, but reply to his inquiry as to when they should be united. He went to the Limes one lovely summer evening, quite resolved upon not coming away without a definite answer. . Violet was looking even more charming than usual; she wore a white dress with blush roses, and her fair girlish face was like a sweet flower. He persuaded her to come — out with him, beguiling her on to the lawn under the pre- text of showing her the gorgeous western sky. “1 do not care for sunsets, Felix,” she said. “I cannot go into raptures over them. I see the sun set in some fashion or other every evening.” But he was so determined that she thought it less trouble to accede to his wish. The sight of the glorious sky made her thoughtful; then, when she was in a frame of mind — comic