The Attractive Man; a Novel Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. That Lucy was fully satisfied by the result of this meeting, is certain; whether Vidal was equally so upon mature reflection maybe doubted; nevertheless her influence, in its mixed nature of love and fear, was too powerful to be resisted; and on the morning following, when they again met, while Lucy was employed in culling her morning bouquet, the promise of marriage, repeated with scrupulous exactness in the same terms as that prepared for the widow, was put into her hand by Theodore. The manner in which she received it, relieved his mind from any doubts as to her motives, which might have arisen during the night, to torment him. She took it from his hand with an action that seemed to evince great indifference for the document itself, for she crushed it in her hand, and then appeared to retain it almost by accident; but her spirit seemed to speak in her soft eyes as she fixed them upon her lover, and said: "Now, Vidal, we stand towards each other on something like terms of equal trust, and equal love. That I have trusted you, is not first proved to-day, and never again can the heart that doats upon you, be wrung by doubting the trust that you feel in me, in return. This act, Theodore, so almost childishly unimportant in itself, yet so unspeakably precious from the inference I draw from it, will render all our future arrangements easy--at least comparatively so--I do not quite mean to say, dearest, that I shall see you set off for town, while I remain in the country, without feeling a pang here," and she pressed his hand to her bosom, "but I do mean that if our mutual interest requires the separation, I shall be able to submit to it--not without suffering, but without repining." "Then you agree with me, sweet love," he said, ...