The Mission of Poubalov — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

LOUISE RECEIVES A CALLER. 121 Clara flushed. She felt at that moment the full force of the calamity that had overtaken her. While she was ac- tively at work building up theories, investigating clews, and examining those who might throw light on the matter, her grief had been measurably lightened. The thought that she was working, however doubtfuly, toward an end, had enabled her to keep her emotions in control. Her un- cle’s words, which were evidently but the preface to an appeal to give up the struggle, reopened her wounds. It Was as if he had torn away the foundations of that struc- mre of the mind by which she had supported her heart, With difficulty she restrained her tears, and responded: . “It would he better, uncle, to use plain language. Then there would be no possible chance of a misunderstanding. I know howI am looked upon, as deserted by my lover, perhaps not for another woman, but at all events deserted by him. The world will say that it would comport better with womanly dignity to suffer in silence and solitude, and that it is unmaidenly to pursue the man.”’ _ **¥You use harsher language than I would have used had Ispoken without consideration of your feelings,’’ inter- posed her uncle, nervously. His niece’s faculty for mani- festing occasionally an imperious will, and of firmly main- taining her own way without regard to general opinion, had always been a bit of a terror to him. It was difficult for him to reconcile it with her affectionate disposition, her real consideration for the sufferings of others. He could not see that in this matter, without the faintest trace of egotism, she unconsciously measured her own ‘suffering as infinitely greater than that of anybody else who was related to the case, and that she as uncon- ‘sciously asserted her. right to minister to that suffering in the way best caleulated to alleviate it. Such characters _as hers, under the pressure of great trouble, elevate self- interest to the very heights of nobility. | “I ask no consideration for my feelings,’’ said Clara, al- most coldly ; : “it seems to me that real consideration would (C@ credit me not only with dignified motives but with,az,jn-- i