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SUCCESS AND FAILURE. 173
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Mm P Part Ii. Chapter Iii. To Doraarthur...
Two days afterwards lier mother died . Dora liad been so long prepared for this termination of her illness , that the blow fell with
less violence than could have been anticipated , but she bore it alone . Wyndham , who so loved them both , who so worshipped Dora , that
the least cloud on her face was a personal grief to him , was not beside her to wipe away her tears . The news of his aunt ' s death was
conveyed to Arthur , and he wrote a few lines to the person who had given him the intelligence , with a hackneyed message of condolence
to Dora , and a request that some trifles of his own which he had left in the house should be forwarded to him . The letter was a
characteristic one ; to a stranger it might have seemed _jjlausible . The coin bore the stamp of good will and of kindness , but it was
not true metal , and it rung false and hollow . Dora put it aside with a sigh , she felt she had deserved better at Arthur ' s hands .
She felt that recoil of heart which we all experience when we come into contact with ingratitude and baseness , and which seems to
shake the earth on which we tread ; but surging over all the pain caused by Arthur , was the deep and bitter regret for Wyndham ' s
fatal error . There were circumstances which made the embroilment complete
and irrevocable . A week or two previous to the day which had clenched Wyndham ' s suspicions , Dora had heard of a change in her
wordly prospects which made it impossible for her now to indulge the "wish , even if she had the power , of recalling her wayward lover .
Mrs . Nugent had received tidings , that , owing to the failure of a house IS ** business in whose hands she had placed some money , the
small independence she had saved from her widow ' s pension , and which she had destined for Dora , was lost . Mrs . Nugent was
snperstitiously timid on the subject of imprudent marriages . She had solemnly charged Dora not to fulfil her engagement with
Wyndham . On the morning of the day Wyndham left , she had bound Dora to secresy , and had occupied herself with writing a
letter to Wyndham , informing him of this misfortune , and entreating him to obey her wishes in this respect . It was the
agitation and grief caused by her vainly , striving to combat her mother ' s determination that had so fatally misled Wyndham on that last
morning and reasoning . Meanwhile 1 character , he , , had with formed a hastiness the notion unlike , which his usual it must calm be
confessed had much to corroborate and confirm it , that Dora and Arthur were attached to each other , and had yielded her , his own
" ewe lamb , " to his fortunate and prosperous rival . Plow often , when a complication of circumstances seems to conspire against us ,
some simply material evil gives the finishing stroke . Dora independent might have written and explained , Dora a beggar felt
she could not do so . It may have been a weakness , and the soundest philosophy and the deepest wisdom would have taught
her act wisel better y , and but when well . a Besides very strong this love there is was in question the woman , how ' s shyness of us !
Success And Failure. 173
SUCCESS AND FAILURE . 173
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1859, page 173, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051859/page/29/
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