At first it was but a pleasant break in a life dreary
beyond words; then I looked for the daily meed of flattery and
homage. I could not do without it. Lily, will you hold me to
have been mad when I tell you the time came when I allowed that
man to hold my hands as you are doing, to kiss my face, and win
from me a promise that I would be his wife?"
Beatrice looked up then and saw the fair, pitying face almost as
white as snow.
"Is it worse than you thought?" she asked.
"Oh, yes," said Lillian; "terrible, irretrievable, I fear!"
Chapter XXXV
There was unbroken silence for some minutes; then Lillian bent
over her sister, and said:
"Tell me all, darling; perhaps I can help you."
"I promised to be his wife, Lily," continued Beatrice. "I am
sure I did not mean it. I was but a child. I did not realize
all that the words meant. He kissed my face, and said he should
come to claim me. Believe me, Lily, I never thought of marriage.
Brilliant pictures of foreign lands filled my mind; I looked upon
Hugh Fernely only as a means of escape from a life I detested.
He promised to take me to places the names of which filled me
with wonder.
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