The Raid of Dover: A Romance of the Reign of Woman, A.D. 1940Ford, Douglas Morey
Science
The Raid of Dover: A Romance of the Reign of Woman, A.D. 1940
Ford, Douglas Morey
Imaginary wars and battles -- Fiction; Socialism -- Fiction; Women -- Suffrage -- Great Britain -- Fiction
Zenobia Jardine was greatly moved. She recognised the nobility of
Renshaw's attitude, but she still had misgivings as to her own path
of duty. The messages reached her at a time when she was torn with
conflicting feelings, bewildered by new sensations, impressed with new
aspects of human life, agitated by complex thoughts and emotions to
which hitherto she had been a stranger. It was a crisis in her life.
Subtle but masterful influences were at work upon her inmost being.
Scales had failed, as it were, from her eyes, and her soul looked out
upon possibilities of which in her unenlightened days she had never
even dreamed. Love, duty, religion--each and all had acquired for her
a deep and wonderful significance, and in her heart she feared to be
presented with the problem of choice. Could these things be reconciled
in the light of the revelation that had come to her? Would they be her
armour and her strength wherewith she could go forward to some great
predestined goal; or, if she chose the one, must she of necessity
eschew the rest? One thing she knew for certain when she again held
Linton's hand and looked into his face. This was the man she loved
and always would love--stranger still, it seemed as if he were a man
she always _had_ loved. But she knew now of his daring, his fidelity,
his narrow escape from death, and realised his clear, though unspoken
devotion to herself.
And he, for his part, had known no peace until he found himself at her
side again. Renshaw had placed at his disposal the _Albatross_, one
of the swiftest of the Government air-ships, and another engineer had
succeeded to the place of poor Wilton. Westwards he had rushed on the
wings of the _Albatross_, leaving the lights of London, its crowded
streets, its shouting and excited multitudes, far behind.
And now, side by side, he and Zenobia and Peter, her dog, engaged in
dog-like explorations on the route, went slowly across the quaint
bridge with its low-roofed shops that spans the Avon, and passed
through the streets of ancient Bath.
"What would you do? What is your advice?" the girl asked, turning to
him suddenly. They had been silent for some time, but each knew well
what occupied the other's thoughts. "Respect Renshaw's wishes," was
Linton's firm reply.
"But the will--the confession is in the will," said Zenobia.
"The will need not be proved. With or without it, what your father left
belongs to you, his sole next of kin."
She looked down thoughtfully. "It is your advice?" she asked, quietly.
"Yes, mine as well as his."
"Then I shall follow it."
When next they spoke it was upon another subject.
"This place strikes me oddly," said Linton, looking round as they went
up the slopes of Victoria Park. "I have never been here before, and yet
I have a curious feeling...."
She turned quickly. "How strange! I know what you are going to say."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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