Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
The man was completely, almost ludicrously in her power; and Zélie
didn't flatter herself that what he had done was done entirely because
of trust in her. He _did_ trust her, of course. But as the girl set
forth to carry out his wishes, she realised that he had turned to her as
much through a man's blindness as through perfect faith in her unfailing
friendship.
Friendship! She laughed a little at the word, travelling westward in the
luxurious stateroom for which Garth had paid. What a dear fool he was!
But all men were like that. When they fell head over heels in love with
one woman, they never bothered to analyse the feelings of any other
female thing on earth!
Yes, that was about all she was in his eyes--a female thing! He had been
in desperate need of help, and she happened to be the one creature who
could give the kind he wanted.
Some girls would have refused, she thought. Others would have accepted,
and then--behaved like cats. Even she had longed to behave like a cat
when she talked to his "wife" through the telephone. "If Marise Sorel
dreamed of what he's asked me to do, not one of the things he hopes for
could ever by any possibility come to pass," Zélie reminded herself, as
she gazed without seeing it at the flying landscape. "Not that they ever
will come to pass anyhow. But it shan't be _my_ fault that he's
disappointed."
Miss Marks honestly believed that she was unselfish in her service; yet
something far down in the depths of her prayed to gain a reward for it
in the far, far future.
The one thing which seemed certain about this wild marriage was, that it
wouldn't last. Sooner or later--probably sooner!--there'd be a divorce.
Then, maybe, Jack Garth would remember what his pal Zélie Marks had done
for him. He'd turn to her for comfort as now he turned for help.
Love--real love--was sometimes born in such ways: and Zélie didn't for
an instant let herself think that Garth's love for Marise Sorel was
_real_. It was infatuation, and was bound to pass when he found out what
a vain, self-centred girl his idol was; whereas Zélie Marks had been
loyally his chum for years.
Zélie had loved Garth long before the war, when she knew him in
Albuquerque. She was learning stenography then, after her father died,
and when there was no one for her to live with except an aunt. The aunt
was quite a good aunt, and a friend of Mrs. Mooney--Jack's "Mothereen";
but Zélie had wanted to be independent. Jack and Mothereen had been kind
to the girl; and when Jack began building a house near his beloved Grand
Canyon, for a little while Zélie had tremblingly prayed that it was
meant for her to live in. Later, she had begun to lose hope, but not
wholly. And then the war had broken out in Europe. Almost at once Garth
had dashed over to England and offered his services, on the plea that
his father, a Yorkshire man, had never been naturalised as an American.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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