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Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915

"Phantom Fortune, a Novel"

'You try to talk and to be
lively, but there is a little perpendicular wrinkle in your forehead
which I know as well as the letters of the alphabet, and that little
line means worry. I used to see it in the old days, when you were
breaking your heart for Lesbia. Why cannot you be frank and confide in
me. It is your duty, sir, as my husband.'
'Is it my duty to halve my burdens as well as my joys? How do I know if
those girlish shoulders are strong enough to bear the weight of them?'
'I can bear anything you can bear, and I won't be cheated out of my
share in your worries. If you were obliged to have a tooth out, I would
have one out too, for company.'
'I hope the dentist would be too conscientious to allow that.'
'Tell me your trouble, Hartfield,' she said, earnestly, leaning across
the table, bringing her grave intelligent face near to him.
They were quite alone, he and she. The servants had done their
ministering. Behind them there was the empty dining-room, in front of
them the sunlit panorama of lake and hill. There could not be a safer
place for telling secrets.


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