Mrs Marden's Ordeal Author:James Hay General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1918 Original Publisher: Little, Brown, and company Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When yo... more »u buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV 1LED him into the library -- the library is the " homiest " room in the house -- and he started in on one of his joyous tirades. Charlie's talking is always more or less of a cascade of words, even though somebody has said that his thin, expressive face is half of his vocabulary. " Ruth," he began, flinging himself on the big leather couch in front of me, " I've come to praise you and to worship you. Please realize that at this moment I am burning incense in your temple. A string of choir boys a mile long is singing a triumphant anthem composed by myself in your honor, and the high priest of gratitude is exhorting a million devotees to live up to your example -- which is mercy and loving kindness." Somehow, his exuberance of spirits did not call forth any response from me. I was afraid he would see how weary I felt. I forced myself to ask him, " What is it all about, Charlie?" " Ethel Gilmore," he replied. " I prostratemyself before you, I lift my voice in thanksgiving, because you prevented me from marrying her." " Oh, she?" My voice was contemptuous. " It delights me to report," he swept on, with a sigh of mock relief, " that I saw her in a cafe last night and came away unscathed. When my eyes rested upon her, my blood pressure was not increased, and my heart failed to beat a fraction of a second faster. Not a tear moistened my smoothly shaven cheeks. Ruth, I'm cured!" " How on earth you ever imagined yourself in love with her, I can't understand," I ...« less