Yet it was, on the other hand, just possible that
Sir David, finding him on a false scent, should have been willing to let
him follow it, and that the real offender should be screened by this
suspicion of John Saltram. But then there arose in his mind a doubt that
had perplexed him sorely for a long time. If his successful rival had
been indeed a stranger to him, what reason could there be for so much
mystery in the circumstances of the marriage? and why should Marian have
so carefully avoided telling him anything about her husband? That his
friend, having betrayed him, should shrink from the revelation of his
falsehood, should adopt any underhand course to avoid discovery, seemed
natural enough. Yet to believe this was to think meanly of the man whom
he had loved so well, whom he had confided in so implicitly until the
arising of this cruel doubt.
He had known long ago, when the first freshness of his boyish delusions
faded away before the penetrating clear daylight of reality, he had known
long ago that his friend was not faultless; that except in that one
faithful alliance with himself, John Saltram had been fickle, wayward,
vacillating, unstable, and inconstant, true to no dream of his youth, no
ambition of his early manhood content to drop one purpose after another,
until his life was left without any exalted aim.
Pages:
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344