[Wife in Name Only by Charlotte M. Braeme (Bertha M. Clay)]@TWC D-Link book
Wife in Name Only

CHAPTER XXV
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It is supposed that she saved numberless lives; she devoted herself to the nursing of the sick, and when all the fright and fear had abated, she found herself laden with blessings, and her name honored throughout the land.

This is Lady Lola, who in time of riot went out unattended, unarmed, quite alone, and spoke to three or four hundred of the roughest men in the country; they had come, in the absence of her husband, to sack and pillage the Hall--they marched back again, leaving it untouched.

This, Lady Constance, is a lineal descendant of Lady Nethsdale--the brave Lady Nethsdale." She clung to his arm as she stood there.
"Oh, Norman," she said, "do you mean that my portrait, too, will hang here ?" "I hope so, my darling, very soon." "But how can I have a place among all these fair and noble women," she asked, with sad humility--"I whose ancestors have done nothing to deserve merit or praise?
Why, Norman, in the long years to come, when some Lord Arleigh brings home his wife, as you have brought me, and they stand together before my picture as I stand before these, the young wife will ask: 'Who was this ?' and the answer will be: 'Lady Madaline Arleigh.' She will ask again: 'Who was she ?' And what will the answer be?
'She was no one of importance; she had neither money, rank, nor aught else.'" He looked at the bent face near him.
"Nay, my darling, not so.

That Lord Arleigh will be able to answer: 'She was the flower of the race; she was famed for her pure, gentle life, and the good example she gave to all around her; she was beloved by rich and poor.' That is what will be said of you, my Madaline." "Heaven make me worthy!" she said, humbly.

And then they came to a picture that seemed to strike her.
"Norman," she said, "that face is like the Duchess of Hazlewood's." "Do you think so, darling?
Well, there is perhaps a faint resemblance." "It lies in the brow and in the chin," she said.


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