Her Faithful Knight — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

A Ruined Life. 59 told me, I mean. It is impossible. You would not be human if you were so wicked. I am your wife, am I not? And you love me? That story that you were married. before is a lie, is it not?’ “T had seized him by the arm; I was half mad with anxiety. To my horror he did not answer me directly, but began to stroke my hair and tell me to be a good girl and not to make a fuss about nothing. “*You know, my dear,’ he said, ‘I never desired this marriage; you forced it upon me. You were breaking ~ your heart about me, and I was so touched by your in- fatuation that I agreed to what was a very risky busi- ness for me.’ “T could do nothing but stare at him. He actually seemed to believe what he was saying, and spoke in an injured tone. “Tt is all your own fault, my child,’ he went on, ‘and due to the silly, puritanical way in which you have been brought up. Love is not a thing to be cabined and con- fined by a wedding-ring. If it had not been for that ab- surd and meaningless ceremony which you insisted upon at Sheffield, we shouldn’t have been half so tired of each other as we are now.’ | “T hardly noticed the words in which for the first time he told me that he was tired of me in my horror at his allusions to our marriage as a ‘meaningless ceremony.’ I had sunk on the sofa again. My mind was torn be- tween a growing despair and a tendency to hysterical laughter at the sight of Sergius, who had certainly been drinking more than usual, seated at the table, preaching philosophy and resignation over his whisky and water. “*Tf I am not your wife,’ I said at last, ‘what am I? What shall I be? What will the world think of me in a little while ?’ “Sergius rolled a cigarette while he answered: Eomichbooks (E@)