Mr Lismore and the Widow
by Wilkie CollinsGenre: Romance
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Novella
Recommended Adaptation Length:
Candidate for Adaptation? Promising
EXCERPT:
“Yes. I am to be absolute mistress of the whole of the four hundred thousand pounds–” her voice dropped, and her eyes looked away from him as she spoke the next words–“on this one condition, that I marry again.”
He looked at her in amazement.
“Surely I have mistaken you,” he said. “You mean on this one condition, that you do _not_ marry again?”
“No, Mr. Lismore; I mean exactly what I have said. You now know that the recovery of your credit and your peace of mind rests entirely with yourself.”
After a moment of reflection he took her hand and raised it respectfully to his lips. “You are a noble woman!” he said.
She made no reply. With drooping head and downcast eyes she waited for his decision. He accepted his responsibility.
“I must not, and dare not, think of the hardship of my own position,” he said; “I owe it to you to speak without reference to the future that may be in store for me. No man can be worthy of the sacrifice which your generous forgetfulness of yourself is willing to make. I respect you; I admire you; I thank you with my whole heart. Leave me to my fate, Mrs. Callender–and let me go.”
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