Weaker than a Woman — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

34 WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. self with a nursery eoverness : as for the new silk dregs, it no longer gave her the least pleasure. What was this cloud hanging over her husband and her children? Was it only nervous fancy, or was there evil looming in the distance ? She was soon to know, and when she did know it proved. to be even greater than she feared. CHAPTER VII. “GIVE THE MONEY BACK AGAIN.”’? “Tam very sorry—lI think it unjust; but itis quite im- possible to say how it will end,” said George Malcolm, the lawyer. For the secret was known now—the shadow had become a substance, the vague fancies had all assumed a form, the airy nothings had become realities so stern and so cruel that they had driven Darcy Lonsdale almost to despair. Mrs. Hardman’s heir-at-law, James-Hardman, had given legal notice that he intended to contest his relative’s will on the ground of undue influence. He maintained—and nothing could shake his opinion—that Darcy Lonsdale had taken undue advantage of his position, that he had influ- enced a weak-minded woman, and had persuaded her to leave him the half of her money. It was a clever ruse, ad- vising her to send for another lawyer; but it would not help him. Mr. Lonsdale found that the rumors about him had been erowing daily, that his friends and neighbors were all talking of him, while he himself had not the faintest idea of the mischief that was abroad. James Hardman had been in Lilford—that he knew, and the fact had not interested him in any way; but he did not know that James Hard- man had been silently destroying his reputation, had called upon his old friends, and had, in the most subtle fashion, insinuated that there had been a conspiracy against him, and that he intended to dispute the will. Every one in Lilford knew this before the least rumor of it reached Darcy Lonsdale. He went at once to Mr. Malcolm, but the hon- est lawyer had no cheering news for him. “Tam a lawyer myself,” he said, “but I can never tell how a lawsuit may end; itmay take the right turn, and © again it may take a wrong one.” “But,” returned Darcy Lonsdale, “Mrs. Hardman meant comic 200ks