His Other Wife: A Novel — page 379: what you’re looking at

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

STELARS; IDLE: TEARS?” 371 Her cheek flushed with pleasure. She knew well whose thoughtful hand had thus brightened the little room for her day’s labors. And so it happened often. Sometimes flowers, often a new book, or basket of fresh fruits, would greet her as she entered the little upper chamber in the millinery. But of Warren she saw less than ever. His health had improved, and his business increased, so that he often worked late into the night, merely taking his meals at home. His manner to Leda was always the same—gentle, thoughtful, fraternally kind, but grave; and though he was universally cheerful, there seemed to be a profound preoccupation in his air and expression. ‘This might arise from business cares. Leda contented herself with thinking so, and her secret hope grew strong within her that his heart was surely leaning to its old fondness. She could put no other construction upon his unvarying ccnsidera- tion for her and his covert attentions. But his self- contained manner puzzled her strangely. Her presence or her absence seemed alike to him, so far as any mani- festation of personal feeling. If she came unexpectedly before him, he always met her with the quiet smile that seemed to say, ‘‘It is well’”-—only this. If she left his company, no anxious glance followed her. After awhile this became monotonous, and, of all things, Leda abhorred monotony; she had lived so much in a changeful whirl of excitement. She determined on | EoOmMmichoo CS: (E(@)