Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Wings of Icarus - Being the Life of one Emilia Fletcher by Laurence Alma-Tadema
page 71 of 139 (51%)

It is so easy to imagine the bright side of things when one is too
far away to see the truth. Silly Constance, cruel Constance, what is
the use of sending me such words of false hope? It does not follow,
because you love me best of all the world, that another should do
likewise. No, no; you know nothing at all about it, and yet in spite
of all reason, I catch at every straw you send drifting towards me.
Once and for all, of course he loves me, but it stands just so. He
loves me too well in one way to love me in another. If he loved me
less, he might love me more. I have said all this to Jane. She
declares that the only reason why he is not in love with me is that
an obstacle stands in the way which has stood in the way all along,
and which he has never dreamed of surmounting. She means my accursed
money. I told her she was completely mistaken; that love, inevitable
love, knows nothing of obstacles; besides, this could not be an
obstacle between him and me,--he is too unworldly to be the slave of
such prejudice. If I thought she was right, who knows but what I
should send my money spinning into the lap of Charity, and let that
lady dispense it as indiscriminately and wastefully as she pleases.
No, no; the fault lies in another direction. There has been a little
mistake somewhere; I am not the lost half of his soul, for all that
he is mine.

Little Constance, I think now that perhaps you were right when you
said that I was not altogether a woman. I am certainly not made as a
woman should be. A woman may return love, but she must never dare to
give it. I have been guilty of this folly, and now, what is to
become of me?

We are such fools, we women. When a man loves, he is all that he
DigitalOcean Referral Badge