Should She Have Left Him? — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

A BEWILDERED FATHER. 81 “Yes, that is what was the first thought,” replied Dorothy. ‘“ That is what Mr. Magrane said, and it - was what Harry had supposed I would do.” “And tried to persuade you from doing,” again mterjected her father. “You are much mistaken. He used neither per- suasion nor command. It was I who, having thought it all out while Mr. Magrane was talking, thought differently.” “You?” Mr. Courtenay was aghast. eyes, continued Dorothy bravely, “If there ts anything wrong in my being here, I must be charged with the wrone. But.l.da not believe there is. 1 showed Harry that we were innocent of any wrong doing; that we had obeyed all the laws of man and church; that if we were in a false position, where dishonor could be charged, it was not of our mak- ing. At the very worst it was our misfortune.” “Very true,” acquiesced Mr. Courtenay, striving hard to follow his daughter. “TY further showed him that the position was the results of defect in the social system; that though we had scrupulously observed the laws and forms society and church prescribed for us, we were not protected from the failures of those forms and laws; that having failed, and we the victims thereof, both society and church would punish me, the woman, for having been the victim of its own shortcomings, - though I fled from him at once.” This was a little beyond the old gentleman’s com. prehension. He struggled with the statement fora Comicloeo cS C@ 3}