The black cardinal Author:John Talbot Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. SO THEY WERE MARRIED. Having learned the truth it was not Miss Patterson's way to turn her back on it, and persuade herself that someone had ma... more »de a mistake. She loved, and she aspired to high position. Lucky for her that both passions could be satisfied in the same lover. The outlook however did not improve with time. Chill November came and Dolly Manners returned home with a sweet message to Jerome, just three small words, faithful and true. Poor Betsy remained alone. The leaves turned red and yellow, and fell to the ground. Her hopes fell with them, withered and dead. The cold rain beat the dead leaves into hideous decay; her salt tears fell on her dying hopes and quickened them into life again. She always felt more hopeful after a good shower of tears. Nevertheless the strain began to tell on her, her color went with her appetite, and her plumpness suddenly faded away till the soft skin lay wrinkled on her little bones. The alarm of her cousins brought Papa down from Baltimore by express, and the sight of the wan thing filled him with despair. He was a man of affairs, sensible with the sense of long and varied experience, aware of the strength of nature and the obstinacy of passion. He could not afford to lose his darling inany fashion, but least of all as a victim to the folly of love. She had pined away until in his arms she felt light as a feather. Truly, he said to himself, first love may be fool-love, yet it is more than a match for wisdom while it lasts. He foresaw surrender evidently, but first he tried a gentle argument. "Strange, strange," said he, shaking his head sadly, "that a mere stranger should make such a change in you, Elisabeth. If father and brother and aunt and friend were swept away by a flood, you would have your time of grief for u...« less