Via Vitae Author:S. Slater General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1917 Original Publisher: The Roxburg Publishing Company Inc. Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Boo... more »ks.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III Whom God Hath Joined Mrs. Stephens stood waiting for the carriage. A bright spot burned on either cheek and her lips were compressed in the thin red line, which her mirror had told her was so disastrous to beauty; but in her perturbation she forgot the warning. It had come to her with such a startling revelation, only those, whose mirrors have told them the same unwelcome fact, can appreciate Mrs. Stephens' frame of mind. That "Pretty Mrs. Stephens," had so often filled her with pride and gratification, the thought of being without that distinction, seemed no less a calamity than the coming of the end of the world, and it had come upon her so suddenly as such calamities do. She was standing in the center of an admiring throng; white shoulders, sparkling jewels and the hum of conversation was all about her. It was an hour of triumph, until that mean little whisper came stealing its way through the leafy screen at her right "Dear me! Mrs. Stephens is really looking faded." For the rest of the evening, the color in her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes was not owing to art. But on the morrow, like a foolish woman, she consulted her mirror, and her mirror told her theplain unvarnished truth. That the lines, which irritation had been forming across her brow, had become formidable wrinkles -- no amount of cold cream and rubbing would erase them. About the mouth another set were clearly perceptible and, as time increased, would give to her face a harsh unpleasant look. "Oh, why must I be so worried and tormented!" she cried, but the...« less