Restless Human Hearts A Novel - 3 Author:Richard Jefferies Volume: 3 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1875 Original Publisher: Tinsley Bros. Subjects: Fiction / Romance / General Fiction / Romance / Adult Fiction / Romance / Contemporary Fiction / Romance / Historical Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and th... more »ere may be typos or missing text. When you 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 ITI. A Fatalist, as all close observers of Nature and all intense minds are, Pierce traced the loss ofHeloise to that first unfortunate marriage of his. This was why he had kept her in such strict seclusion. He argued with himself -- told himself that it was for her health; it was better that she should not be excited; in his heart of hearts he well knew that he dreaded her entrance into society, lest she should marry, and leave him. He could not contemplate the possibility of so lovely a creature passing unnoticed amidst the crowd; she would be sure to be snatched away from him, and he should be left alone. Therefore he had kept her in the country, tortured at times with the fear lest he was doing her an injustice, doubting whether, in his selfishness, he was not injuring her, whom he loved above all. But he could not bring himself to part with her, not even for three months. It would have been different, he said, if she had pined for change, if she had panted for the legitimate pleasures and amusements of youth. But Heloise, so impetuous and so fond of motion, never showed the least inclination to leave him, never asked to go out into the world. She was contented, happy ; and he was only too glad that she should be so. Now lie traced events back to their beginning, and saw, or thought he saw, that the very precautions he had taken to secure her to himself had resulted in precisely the opposite manner to what he had hop...« less