The Ring and the Man; With Some Incidental Relation to the Woman

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909. Excerpt: ... honor and dignity he had extricated himself from the dilemma in which the opposition had sought to plunge him, the magnificent audacity with which he had faced the crisis and dominated the interview; lastly, there was a keen, terrible pang of jealousy and bitterness toward that other woman. It was this last emotion that was self revealing. Eleanor Haldane knew now that she loved this man. She realized in this unveiling of her heart that probably she had loved him all the time; that the other feelings and emotions which he had stirred in her heart and she had sought to characterize by different words were now blended into passion as great as his own. It had needed this thought--that that possession in which unconsciously she had luxuriated had not been always hers, that he had cherished affection for some other woman, that in days gone by he had even pretended or thought that he had loved this other--to make her know the exact state of her own feelings. Eleanor wondered, as these thoughts swiftly raced through her mind, what this other woman had been like. He had said that she was not a good woman. She wondered if he still remembered her. For twenty-five years in New York he had declared he had known no woman as intimately as he had known her. How far could recollection carry an ancient image under such circumstances? Was she, Eleanor Haldane, indeed first in his heart? Would she always be so? She sat quite silently, staring at the paper, reading the lines over and over again, thinking her thoughts, until her brother who had absented himself for a brief space came back into the room. Well, he said, what are you going to do? What am I going to do! What have I to do? If your heart doesn't tell you, I can't. My heart? Yes. The man loves you. He s...