A Social Meteor — page 298: what you’re looking at

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

288 A SOCIAL METEOR, They called in four doctors, I hear, who simply devoted themselves to her ; but they could. do very little. She regained her strength so slowly that Mrs. Clarke almost died of despair, and worse than all, as her body improved, they discovered that her mind was gone and they could give no hope of its recovery. They say that her principle hallucination is that Peter Persuade is married and has a son. ‘By the way, I must not forget to mention that Jack Nelson has married the widow, and his parents absolutely refuse to recognize her. ‘Too bad, isn’t it ?” The letter fell from his hands and he turned sharply away with a choking sob. | The sound of a bell from a distant monastery, ringing for vespers, came softly over the water. It was followed by one nearer by. ‘The waves sighed and moaned below. The sight of his grief and the Solent of the hour stirred whatever womanliness there was in Ray’s character. Impulsive always, she sprang toward him and threw herself at his feet, bursting into a passion of tears. “Oh, don’t look so grieved, so heart-broken,” she ted | ‘and forgive meif you can. I did not mean to eine misery to any one when I acted so selfishly. I only thought of my own happiness, and now I am repaid for my wickedness, in trying to alleviate it by such means as I did. Listen: I may have done wrong in leaving home, in forcing Eomichbooks (E@)