Excerpt from A Child Widow, Vol. 2 of 3: A Novel When Nancy, moved by a spasmodic idea of duty, came in, pale and red-eyed, to sit beside him, he forgot his rancour altogether in a benevolent concern for her future, exert ing himself to utter some broken phrases of advice, to which she listened meekly, feeling that her own identity was gone, and with it independence that she could never again be anything but a pale reflex Of other people's wishes and intentions. A sense of helplessness over-weighted her natural buoy ancy; she staggered under it and trembled with a fear utterly foreign to her nature. She had left the beaten track, which, however unattractive, had at least been safe, and she had wandered into strange regions without a guide or escort, and now she must wait until someone came to lead her out of the labyrinth in which she was lost. She herself had done enough - too much. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.