A Heart's Bitterness — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

eS ae SA at 60 A HEART'S BITTERNESS, nectar-laden flowers. On her lap lay Keith’s bouquet. - She had heard Leigh pressing on Keith a share in some of their plans for the next week or two, and she had seen - Kenneth divided between desire and fear to accept. A step on the gravel suggested to her the he whom she had loved and lost, and found but to lose more un- utterably, was near. She remembered his step through all those parted years. She looked up. “‘T saw you come out alone. Are you ill or tired, Violet?” In her brief married life Leigh had never spoken to her with tones of such absorbing tenderness. Keith did not know the infinite love that was in his voice. ‘“No; but I grow tired of tumult. I think [am made . for more quiet things. I believe 1 am more like Words- worth’s Lucy than any one else—a.simple little person, hap- piest when out of sight. You remember— *¢ «She grew beside the untrodden ways, Along the banks of Dove, A maid whom there were none to praise, And very few to love.’ _ That is like me. You sent me this bouquet, did you not? I was glad to get it. I feared you might be angry.” ‘“Angry? I could never be angry with you, Violet.” ‘“*] think you have great cause. When a woman spoils a man’s life, then he has great cause for anger. But you said you wonld be friends with me, after all.” “Yes, and Iam, heart and soul. To begin, I fear you will take cold out in the air, with your neck uncovered. You look so frailto me. Allow me.” And taking a large white silk kerchief from his pocket, he laid it gently about her shoulders. Violet looked up at him with her innocent eyes. ‘TI like to be taken care of,” she said, simply; and Keith felt such a thrill of rebeliion against the fate that forbade _ his constant care of her, that he drew back a step in self- defiance. . | . ‘“<'This is a brilliant scene, this ball, and I hope you are enjoying it,” he said; ‘‘and if you like quiet pleasures and rural scenes, as I know you do, no doubt you will like it 4 _. much at Leigh Towers. I understand it is one of the finest, - ~ wate 8x most romantic estates in England.” | (E(0) Eomicbooks