Weaker than a Woman — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

WEAKER THAN A WOMAN. °- 45, about it. He looked in vain for some trace of sorrow on the lovely laughing face—for some sign of regret; there was none. She had written a very pretty note of condo- lence to Darcy Lonsdale, and when Felix talked to her she shook her golden head and said it was very sad; but when he went to her with his heart full of passionate love, pas- sionate longing and regret, and spoke about their marriage being deferred, she looked very gravely at him and said: | “Tt cannot be helped, Felix; and, after all, what does it matter? What differnece will afew years make? By not marrying now we both escape the misery of living on lim- ited means.”’ But he was half mad with his misery, and was not to be put off with such words. He took her white hands in his, and held them in an iron grasp. “Have you no pity to extend to me?” he cried. “Have you no word to comfort me? Have you no heart? That which is a relief to you is deadly torment, deadly anguish, tome. Oh, Violet, you would have been a truer woman if you had clasped your arms around my neck, if you had laid your face on my shoulder, and consoled me.” The ring of passion in his voice frightened her, as it al- ways did; she shrank with a scared face from the great love she could riot understand. ‘“T have to work and wait,” he said. “Oh, my beautiful love, I would work for you as no man has worked, if need should be. It is not that, but I had built up my hopes, and it is hard to see them all destroyed. I had believed that this year I should take my darling home to begin the life that would be joy for me. I am young, and feel keenly ; it is a terrible disappointment to me—a terrible blow. Oh, Violet, help me to bear it!” She raised her beautiful, half-frightened face to his. * What can I do to help you?” she said. “Kiss me. I will not have a shy, coy, formal kiss, Vio: let. Kiss me @s though your heart answered mine. Say you are sorry for me, and that you will love me and help me to wait. Say all this—my heart is hungry for it.” She did as he wished. She laid her golden head on his breast and whispered to him that she was sorry for him, and then she raised her fair face and kissed him. In that moment he welcomed pain—it was all changed into untold “bliss for him because it won a little kindness from her. “TI shall bear it all now, my darling,” he said. “The waiting, the suspense, the uncertainty, the disgrace—I COmIicbooks (ale)