FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82  
83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>   >|  
drew off and was silent. "He seized the word at once. "'You have seen nothing. If you think you have, then have you deceived yourself. Marah Leighton has beauty, but it is not a kind that moves me--' "He paled. Was it horror of the lie he was uttering? I have never known, never shall know. "'The woman I am going to marry is Honora Dudleigh.' "I gazed at him, determined to find the truth if it were in him. He bore my look unflinchingly, though his color did not return, and his hands trembled nervously. "'You love her?' I asked. "'I love her,' he returned. "'And your wedding day--' "'Is set.' "'May it have no interruptions,' I remarked. "He laughed--an uneasy laugh, I thought--but jealousy was not yet dead within me. "'And yours?' he inquired. "'I have had mine,' I returned. 'I shall never have another.' "He shook his head and looked at me inquisitively. I repeated my assertion. "'I shall never approach the altar again with a woman. I am done with such things, and done with love.' "He finished his laugh. "'Wait till you see Marah Leighton smile again,' he cried; and with the first reappearance of his old manner that I had seen in him since the beginning of this interview, he caught up a wine glass off the table, and filling it with wine, exclaimed jovially: 'Here's to our future wives! May they be all that love paints them!' "I thought his mirth indecent, his manner out of keeping with the occasion, and the whole situation atrocious. But I saw he was about to leave, and said nothing; but I did not drink his toast. When he was gone, I broke his glass by flinging it at my own reflection, in a glass I had bought to mirror her beauty; and before the day was spent, I had destroyed every destructible article in the house whose value or whose prettiness spoke of the attempt I had made to alter my home from a bachelor's abode to the nest I had thought in keeping with the dove I had failed to place there. As I did it I filled the house with mocking laughter; that I should have thought that this or that would please her, who would have found a palace open to criticism, and the splendors of a throne room scarce grand enough for her taste! I was but suffering the stings of a lifetime compressed into a day, and was miserable because I could see no prospect but further addition to my suffering." CHAPTER XIII. BEFORE THE WEDDING. "Two weeks after this I was sitting beside my so
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82  
83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

thought

 

suffering

 

manner

 
keeping
 
returned
 

beauty

 
Leighton
 

mirror

 

flinging

 

reflection


bought
 

destroyed

 

BEFORE

 

WEDDING

 

article

 
destructible
 

situation

 

atrocious

 

occasion

 
indecent

sitting

 
attempt
 

palace

 

compressed

 

paints

 

miserable

 

criticism

 
splendors
 

stings

 

lifetime


throne

 

scarce

 

laughter

 

bachelor

 

CHAPTER

 

failed

 

filled

 

prospect

 

mocking

 

addition


prettiness

 

Honora

 

Dudleigh

 

determined

 

unflinchingly

 

wedding

 
nervously
 

return

 

trembled

 

deceived