Explore "The Nether Millstone" by Fred M. White on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lady Dashwood smiled through her tears. She had eyes of affection for this tall, handsome, earnest man who paced up and down the room now with the burning words on his lips. He was moved to the very heart; it seemed to him that his scheme was the only way. Lady Dashwood felt that she could hesitate no longer.
"You are very eloquent, Ralph," she said, "and whatever the faults of your scheme may be, you are terribly in earnest. It is not for me to stand in the way. God knows the family pride that I did so much to foster has done harm enough. It drove your father away from home, it came between me and my son and my husband, and rendered all the best years of my life a blank and a desolation. Some day, when I have the courage, I will tell you why your father left home, and the shameful deceit that I put upon him. And all to save the family dignity! And now Mary is as hard as I ever was. Still, the good that lies in that girl of mine -- -- "