She could not associate disgrace with
her love for Preston Cheney. She believed herself to be his
spiritual widow, as it were. His mortal clay and legal name only
belonged to his wife.
Mr Irving had met Berene on a railroad train, and had conceived one
of those sudden and intense passions with which a woman with a past
often inspires an innocent and unworldly young man. He was sincerely
and truly religious by nature, and as spotless as a maiden in mind
and body.
When he had dreamed of a wife, it was always of some shy, innocent
girl whom he should woo almost from her mother's arms; some gentle,
pious maid, carefully reared, who would help him to establish the
Christian household of his imagination. He had thought that love
would first come to him as admiring respect, then tender friendship,
then love for some such maiden; instead it had swooped down upon him
in the form of an intense passion for an absolute stranger--a woman
travelling with a theatrical company. He was like a sleeper who
awakens suddenly and finds a scorching midday sun beating upon his
eyes. A wrecked freight train upon the track detained for several
hours the car in which they travelled. The passengers waived
ceremony and conversed to pass the time, and Mr Irving learnt
Berene's name, occupation and destination.
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