Chippinge Borough by Stanley J. Weyman — Read

In truth Mary's notion of the opinion which Arthur Vaughan had of her was above, rather than below, the reality. In her most despondent moments she scarcely exaggerated the things he thought of her, the contempt in which he held her, or the resentment which set his blood boiling when he remembered how she had treated him. He had gone to her and laid all that was left to him at her feet; and she, who had already dealt his fortunes so terrible a blow, had paid him for his unselfish offer, for his sacrifice of much that was dear to him, with suspicion, with contumely, with mistrust! Instead of clinging to him, to whom she had that moment plighted her troth, she had deserted him at a word. In place of trusting the man who had woo'd her in her poverty, she had believed the first whisper against him. She had shown herself heartless, faithless, inconstant as the wind-a very woman! And

_Away, away-your smile's a curse / Oh, blot me from the race of men, / Kind pitying Heaven! by death or worse_