I didn't
count the cost when I made the generous offer to bring you. Oh, we can
last a week or so yet, but the sooner something is done, the sooner we
shall be easy in our minds. On second thoughts, though, you'd better
go to bed and rest. It mightn't be well to flash on the town to-night,
looking fagged, and without your hair dressed, and all that. So you go
to bed and I'll go around and--call upon a few friends I made when I
was here before."
Ned had so improved his attire, by acquisitions in New York, Bristol,
and London, that his appearance was now presentable in the haunts of
gentlemen. So he went out, leaving her alone. She could no longer
postpone meditating upon what was before her.
Now that she viewed it for the first time in definite particulars, its
true aspect struck her with a sudden dismay. She was expected to do
nothing less than exhibit herself for sale, put herself up at auction
for the highest bidder, set out her charms as a bait. And when the
bait drew, and the bidders offered, and the buyer awaited--what then?
She would never, her pride alone would never let her, degrade herself
to a position at the very thought of which she caught her breath with
horror. Come what may, the man who purchased her must put the
transaction into the form of marriage. True, she was already married,
in the view of the law; but, with a woman's eye for essentials, she
felt her divorce from Philip already accomplished.
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