Rhoda Fleming -- Volume 4

ion of life, and which is the staff of many an otherwise impressible and fluctuating intellect. With this gift, if he trifled, or slid downward in any direction, he could right himself easily, as h

hen she spoke, desiring him to walk on by her side, he was pleased by her voice, and recognition of the laws of propriety, and thought it a thousand pities that she likewise should not become the wife of a gentleman. By degrees, after tentative beginnings, he put his spell upon her ears, for she was attentive, and walked with a demure forward look upon the pavement; in reality taking small note of what things he said, until he quoted, as against himself, sentences from Dahlia's letters; and then she fixed her eyes

ar to read the le

ad them and not break his

to read them and l

ow: "I read them for the first time yest

xcused or accounted for his behaviour, while it filled her with emotions which she felt to b

he had been reduced to shame his manhood, and he left it a marvel. Otherwise, he in no degree exonerated himself. He dwelt sharply on his vice of ambition, and scorned it as a misleading light. "Yet I have done little since I have been without her!" And then, with a persuasive sincerity, he assured her that he could neither study nor live apa

said Rhoda. It conf

t," he could not re

a drew off

ied he, "that I

e shall do what

Let me hear it. You a

not always be ashamed to look her father in the face. She dare not see him bef

t is her

herself to marry a g

ut, "Have you s

e the certainty of the stated fa

lness, weakness, misery, have bewildered her

ink h

have se

hav

ived, I imagine. What is the man's name? I can understand that she has lost her will an

said Rhoda; "his n

low stave of laughter. "And yo

da. "He has been deeply good to my siste

as prompted to betray and con

ultaneously on hearing

smile vanished. Rhoda gave him no word of recognition. As he passed on, he was led to speculate from his having seen Mr. Edward instead of Mr. Algernon, and from the look

only strange. For him, a horror cramped his limbs. He felt that he had raised a devil in that abominable smirking ruffian. It may not, perhaps, be said that he had distinctly known Sedgett to be the man. He had certainly suspected the possibilit

n!" Edward strode some s

hat Dahlia would never consent-first, to marry any man but myself; secondly, to mar

grace has overwhelmed her, it has. When she is married, she will thank and h

to her," s

no

g. I trust no one will co

, that his nobleness should not meet with an ill reward. She endowed him with fair moral qualities, which she contrasted against Edward Bl