The Man in Possession — page 319: what you’re looking at

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

314 VME MAN LV POSSESSION. me if any one could. But, that’s nottobe.. . After all, it’s a caddish thing for a man to drag a girl into misery 1n order to please himself.” She could not answer. The revulsion of feeling was too great—the relief too wonderful, The full strain of all she had so long borne had never been so fully realised as at this moment, when it was at last relaxed. She rose and stood by the couch, her face very pale, her eyes shining softly through a mist of tears. ‘‘What has made you say this, Wilfred ?” she asked. ‘‘Nothing I have done or said; I hope.” ‘*No,” he answered readily. ‘‘ You’ve been an angel of patience and gentleness all this time. I told you it was because I’ve been thinking the matter over, because I know there’s some one else. I’m not going to say I’m pleased. I—TI hate the fellow—but if he’s the only one to make you happy, why—well, he'd better try. You sent him away for my sake, Kate, I’m sure of that. I'll do my best to bring him back, for yours.” ‘‘No,” she said. ‘‘Leave him to himself. I can trust him. He will come back—some day.” Sir Wilfred breathed a sigh of relief that seemed to say hope was not yet dead within him: perhaps he thought accident might yet favour him and that Tom Rivers would not return. He reckoned without his host in the person of Mrs. Lafaye. The arrival of Cornelius O’Brien interrupted this scene, and Kate gladly escaped to her own room, leaving Sir Wilfred to make the necessary expla- nations, COMICIDOOKS. C(O)